PK Freedom

Quality without Reserve

Welcome to the PK Freedom Stamp Wants store. We hope you find some great deals here on quality USA and Canada stamps.

Exclusive to our Stamp Wants store, we accept offers on all of our store items, so if you think the price we are asking is out of line then by all means make an offer. While we are not likely to entertain lowball offers, we will seriously consider all offers and will respond within 24 hours.

85B - 2 cent BlackJack Z Grill Issue 1867

This is one of those elusive and famous Z grills that went into production in the first week of January, 1868, and was a replacement for the experimental C and D Grills of the previous year. The Z grill is the same size as the E Grill and can be distinguished only by the horizontal ridges (rooftops) at the tips of the grill points.

Of course the most famous of the Z grills is the One cent Franklin, with only two known to exist and a catalog value of 3 million dollars, however the 2 cent Blackjack Z grill is much more common and probably the only one that most of us can hope to own.

One of the other characteristics of the 2 cent Z grill is that most copies are notoriously off center and the larger grill often caused other faults such as thins or perf faults when the grill was off centre. Not only that, but this stamp was issued during the 'Killer Cancel' years so plenty of examples with heavy ugly cancels out there.

This particular copy is in Fine condition and moreover is sound with a clean APS Certificate of Authenticity that simply states that it "is genuine in all respects". I did note one shorter perf on bottom that isn't mentioned on certificate, but otherwise this one is sound with a very attractive and interesting letter 'S' fancy cancel.

The catalog value of this stamp is $1,400.00 according to Scott 07. If you are serious about adding one of these Z grills to your collection, please do a search here on Stamp Wants or that other site so that you can compare centering and quality on the examples that are currently available for sale. The only other sound certified copy I could find was one that is listed for $19,500.00 on ebay.

Stamp Market Quarterly lists price for sound example in Fine condition at $720.00 and I've added $75.00 for the fancy cancel. Sound quality at a decent price - thanks for looking. Check out our Stamp Wants store for more fascinating US stamps like this one.