Alfred H. Caspary
Alfred H. Caspary (1877–1955) was a prominent stamp collector from New York City. He built one of the finest collections of United States postage stamps, including postmaster provisionals from both the United States and the Confederate States, as well as U.S. carrier and local stamps. He also held several philatelic roles in the United States and in England.
A notable part of his collection included a Buenos Aires “In Peso” vertical tete-beche pair. An example of these rare stamps had been found in Germany and sold to Caspary, and the pair helped show that Position 33 on the plate of 48 was upside down relative to the others.
When Caspary died in 1955, his collection was broken up and sold by the H. R. Harmer auction house from 1955 to 1958, setting records for many items. Harmer also sold Caspary’s South American holdings in 1958. The famous “In Peso” vertical tete-beche pair moved through several collectors—Lars Amundsen, Joseph Schatzkes, John R. Boker Jr., and Gabriel Sanchez—and by 1982 it appeared in the Islander Collection when it was auctioned by Corinphila in October 1982 for CHF 181,500 (about US$89,000).
Caspary helped found the Philatelic Foundation and served as a member. He was an adviser to the Committee of the Royal Philatelic Society London. Because he was too ill to travel to England in 1952 to sign the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists, his signature was carried by American philatelists to the 1954 Philatelic Congress of Great Britain and photographed onto the Roll. In 1977, Alfred H. Caspary was named to the American Philatelic Society Hall of Fame.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 00:18 (CET).