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March 11 (UPI) -- Three collecting treasures -- two examples of rare stamps and the only legally privately owned Dougle Eagle coin -- went on display in New York on Thursday ahead of what's expected to be a record-breaking auction in June. The items, which were viewable by appointment only at Sotheby's, are being sold June 8 as part of the personal collection of fashion designer Stewart Weitzman.
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Two of the three marquee items, the 1933 Double Eagle coin and the one-of-a-kind British Guiana stamp, are expected to set new records for their respective categories. The only existing Inverted Jenny Plate Block will likely also set a new record for a U.S. philatelic item.
Richard Austin, Sotheby's global head of books and manuscripts, said each of the items holds "an indelible place in history and in our collective imagination."
"It would be a true privilege to present just one of these sought-after rarities at auction but offering all three one-of-a-kind treasures together in the same sale is a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence," he said. "It is a testament to Stuart's perennial passion and dedication to his childhood ambition of acquiring these prized pieces that we are able to create a special moment to share their stories with the world at once."
The 1933 Double Eagle was the last gold coin struck in the United States before the country was taken off the gold standard.
The coins featured the goddess liberty on one side and an eagle on the other, and were designed by sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens at the direction of President Theodore Roosevelt.
The $20 coins struck in 1933 were never issued and were instead ordered destroyed. Several, though, had been stolen from the U.S. Mint, including 10 found in a safe deposit box of a family in 2003. The coins were ordered returned to the Treasury after a years-long legal battle.
The coin that's up for auction apparently left the country in an Egyptian diplomatic pouch and entered the world-renowned coin collection of the late King Farouk of Egypt in 1944. The coin's whereabouts became a mystery until 1996, when the Secret Service seized it and the U.S. government allowed it to be the only 1933 Double Eagle to be owned by private hands.
It last sold for $7.59 million in 2002 -- a record price for any coin sold at auction in the world. It's expected to fetch between $10 million and $15 million in June.
The British Guiana One-Cent Magenta stamp, is expected to realize the same amount, a record for any stamp ever sold at auction. All examples of this stamp were thought lost or destroyed until a 12-year-old boy discovered it in his family's papers in 1873.
The British Guiana government ordered the Royal Gazette to print the stamp in 1855 after a clerical error left the territory without postage. It last sold at auction in 2014 to Weitzman for $9.5 million.
The stamp bears the initials and marks of previous owners, including the fashion designer, on its back.
And finally, an example of perhaps the most famous U.S. stamp -- the result of a printing error -- will also be included in June's auction. The so-called Inverted Jenny stamp is named so because the Curtiss JN-4 biplane, the first airmail carrier in the United States, is printed upside down.
The United States printed only one 100-count sheet of the stamps, and Wietzman's item is the only plate block of four stamps from that sheet that still exists. It last sold at auction in 2006 for $2.97 million, and Weitzman bought the plate block privately in 2014.
The block is expected to fetch $5 million to $7 million in June.
