DALLAS (AP) – A Georgia man’s collection of more than 10,000 Abraham Lincoln stamps has sold at auction in New York City for nearly $2 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. Officials said bids came from around the world.

The presale 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 is one of only two known and sold for $149,600.

A 90-cent vertical block of six Lincoln stamps from 1869 sold for $86,250.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-CS-04-17-09 1921EDT