Stamp Collection
Like many philatelists Zoellner collected stamps as a child and had attempted to fill his US stamp album. However, many US stamps are quite rare, and he eventually put the album aside. His interest was rekindled in 1984, and in 1985 he approached Scott Trepel of Siegel Auctions and asked whether it was possible to assemble a complete collection. At the time all of the major grill rarities were coming on the market and Zoellner had both the "means and the inclination" (to quote the Weill brothers) to obtain them. He purchased the 1 cent Z grill, the rarest US stamp, in November 1986 for $418,000, setting a new record for a US stamp sale.
In addition to singles of each type, Zoellner also bought strips, blocks, and covers. Since his original album had no spaces for these, he moved to a system of computer-generated pages designed for the additional items.
By 1996, only a few spaces remained to be filled. Zoellner accepted an invitation to exhibit the collection at Anphilex '96 and scrambled to complete the collection. The last stamp he acquired was the 30c gray black stamp of 1873, given as a gift by one of Zoellner's friends.
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