الخميس، 5 يوليو 2018

6 Rare Postage Stamps Serious Collectors Get Excited About

By Peter Allen


The more sought after something is the more serious collectors will pay for it. This includes tiny pieces of paper that are unique in some way. It can baffle the non-collectors, but millions of dollars have been paid for a single stamp. The most exciting pieces, and the ones collectors will bid on from all corners of the globe, are the rarest of the rare postage stamps.

A stamp known as the olive colored Queen Victoria's head is a great example of a mistake made by the printer. This stamp was first printed in 1864 in Hong Kong, and was intended to be brownish gray. The error came with fifty-two sheets that were printed in olive. There was an mistake in the placement of the cc and the watermark style as well. The original stamp cost ninety-six cents in Hong Kong. A block of four sold for $6.5 million Hong Kong dollars in 2012.

One of the most expensive stamps in the world is the British Guiana 1 Cent Magenta. It was printed on magenta paper with black ink. This stamp came into being because of a British Guiana postmaster. He had run out of his regular postal supply and talked the local newspaper into printing an emergency batch for him. Postal workers had to initial each stamp to prevent forgeries. The stamp brought $850,000 in 1980.

Mistakes happen when people get in a hurry. The Post Office Mauritius is a good example of this. In 1847 the wife of the governor of Mauritius was planning a ball. The post office had a special stamp issued just for the occasion. The stamp was used on the invitations, but instead of saying postage paid, the stamp read post office. In 2011 one of these twelve two pennies left sold for $1.6 million dollars.

The Inverted Jenny is the upside down version of the first air mail stamp. These were issued in 1918. The inversion was caused when the sheets went through the press the second time. Someone put the sheets into the press the wrong way, and the plane came out upside down. Nobody noticed when the sheets initially went on sale. In 2005 a collector bought a block of four for $3 million.

The first stamp ever made was the 1840 Penny Black. It shows the profile of Queen Victoria sketched by William Wyon. The stamp was retired after just a year because the background made the cancellation mark hard to see. There are only two in existence. One of the two was purchased recently by an American for $5 million.

The Swedish stamp known as the Treskilling Yellow is the most highly prized and expensive stamp in existence. It was intended to be green, but is yellow instead. 2010 was the last time it traded hands. The actual purchase price has remained private, but the auctioneer has admitted that this sale made the Treskilling Yellow the most expensive stamp in the world.

These stamps may not look like much to most. Apparently philatelists are willing to pay millions for these prized pieces of paper. The history behind them, and the rarity, create the value.




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