NEW YORK, NY (AP).- A New York City gallery has auctioned over 200 rare postage stamps to raise $3.2 million for the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C.

Wall Street money manager William Gross' collection of Civil War-era Confederate states and early Canadian stamps sold Thursday at the Spink Shreves Galleries of New York and Dallas.

Gross recently pledged $8 million to build a new gallery at the museum. A $3.2 million check was presented to the museum's director after the auction as part of that donation.

A gallery spokesman says a record price of $260,000 was paid for a single Canadian stamp, a black 12 pence stamp of Queen Victoria from 1851.

The winning bids do not include an additional buyer's premium of fifteen percent.



Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.