The first postal stamps saw the light 181 years ago
The British Pink Guinian brand with a face value of one cent, released in the middle of the 19th century, became the most expensive separate brand sold at auction. In 2014, a postal sign weighing 0.04 grams was purchased for $ 9.48 million at the Sotheby’s auction in New York.
The sign was released in 1856 in British Guiana, the colony of the United Kingdom in South America (now the independent state of Gayan). Due to the shortage of brands supplied from the UK, the colony postmaster had to order postal signs from the printing house of the local newspaper Royal Gazette. Among others, one -center “British pink Guiana” was released. At the moment, only one surviving copy of this brand is known.
In June 2023, the brand will again be exhibited at the Sotheby’s auction, they plan to sell it for 10-15 million.
“Little one -dollar” brand Red Revenue
A set of four Chinese brands Red Revenue was sold in 2009 in 2009 for $ 15.2 million. In 2013, two more single brands of this type left the hammer: one in Beijing for 7.22 million yuan (about 1.2 million dollars. at the rate of that time), the other in Hong Kong for 6.9 million Hong Kong dollars (about 890 thousand. Doll.).
These fiscal brands came out at the end of the 19th century and in 1897 were used as post. The signs came out in different denominations, while the “small one -dollar” are the rarest: they were released first and criticized for too small the size of the hieroglyphs. In total, two panels of 25 marks per each were released, now it is known about 32 surviving signs of this type.
“Holy Grail”
The price of a rare American brand Z Grill with the image of Benjamin Franklin, also known as the “Holy Grail”, is approaching $ 3 million. With a nominal value of a sign of one American center.
In 2005, collector Bill Gross received a brand from Donald Sandman in exchange for a block of four other rare brands – “Inverted Jenny”. The transaction value is estimated at 2.97 million dollars.
A feature of this brand is the type of wafer “Z”, which was limited in the United States in 1868. Currently, the existence of two copies of this brand is officially recognized, one of which is in the New York Public Library. Thus, the sign acquired by Gross became the only one that is available to collectors.
“Inverted Jenny”
The already mentioned block of four marks “Inverted Jenny” was sold by businessman Donald Sandman to an anonymous buyer for almost 5 million dollars. in 2014. For nine years, the price of a rare block increased more than one and a half times – in 2005 it costs 2.97 million dollars.
Brands with the image of Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny” with a face value of 24 cents were released by US post in 1918, while two colors were used on signs-red and blue-because of which the signs had to be driven through a printing press twice. This method of production led to the most famous mistake in American philatelia: the plane printed in blue was turned upside down.
Only one sheet of “Inverted Jenny”, consisting of a hundred brands, fell into the appeal. The record price for a single brand of this type was set in 2018, when the sign left the hammer for 1.59 million dollars.
“Yellow Troskillingovik”
The Swedish brand “Yellow Trino -Hillingovik”, which saw the light in the middle of the 19th century, was sold in 1996 for $ 2.3 million. After 14 years, in 2010, it was again put up for sale. Mark acquired a group of persons who wished to remain unknown – again for 2.3 million dollars.
As in the case of “Inverted Jenny”, the high price of this sign is associated with an error when printing: a trilling brand came out in a yellow color instead of the usual blue-green face value for signs of such a face. Collectors drew attention to a rare copy only 30 years after the release – in 1885. At the moment, only one brand with such a defect is known.