Lincoln stamps collection sold for nearly $2 mil

DALLAS -- A Georgia man's collection of thousands of President Lincoln stamps has sold at auction in New York City for $1.961 million.

Dallas-based Spink Shreves Galleries on Friday auctioned off the Lincoln-focused collection that took 67-year-old William J. Ainsworth of Roswell more than 30 years to amass.

The pre-sale estimate for the collection was more than $2 million.

Among the collection's highlights was a proof of a block of eight mint-condition 90 cent stamps of Lincoln with his image accidentally printed upside-down. The block, one of only two known, sold for $149,600.

A 90 cent vertical block of six Lincoln stamps from 1869 -- rare because it was never broken up -- sold for $86,250. Officials said bids came from around the world.