Bond fund manager and stamp collector Bill Gross has given $8 million to the National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C.
Gross is cofounder, co-chief investment officer and managing director at Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co.
The donation was the largest in the museum’s history, according to a release.
A new 12,000-square-foot William H. Gross Stamp Gallery in the museum is set to display some of Gross’s most prized possessions.
Items include a letter-carrying envelope from the Pony Express, four 1918 “Inverted Jennys” of upside down biplanes mistakenly printed and a 10 cent George Washington stamp from 1847, the earliest known example of a U.S. postage stamp.
“Stamp collecting has been such a rewarding and educational hobby for me that I wanted to share the joys of philately in a way that would benefit future generations of students, citizens and scholars,” Gross said in a release.
The gallery is scheduled to be finished in 2012.
Gross’ gift will help fund the museum’s first expansion in its 16-year history.
As part of the Smithsonian Institution, the National Philatelic Collection comprises more than 6 million stamps and related objects, including more than 5,000 stamps in the National Stamp Collection.
Gross, a longtime stamp collector, in 2007 auctioned off a rare British stamp collection for $9.1 million and donated the proceeds to Doctors Without Borders.
