Among the collectors of postage stamps, the legend is known that in the tomb of one of the Egyptian pharaohs, who lived 4,500 years ago, a collection of all postmarks existing at that time was found, where the place of sending the letter was indicated. Allegedly, this collection is now stored in the Cairo Museum.
Historians still can not find the exact information about the pharaoh-philatelist, but several million people on Earth consider their hobby one of the oldest. And throughout the history of philately all who are interested in it are worried by questions: "What brand is the rarest? How much is the most expensive brand in the world?"
"Princess" of philately
1856 year. Severe storms were delayed by ships sailing from England to British Guiana, a colony located on the northeast coast of South America. Among other things, on the ships were royal postage signs, which were coming to an end in the colony. In order not to hamper the work of delivering correspondence, the postmaster from the capital of Guiana, Georgetown, E. Dalton ordered the printing of temporary stamps in the printing house of the local newspaper. A vignette was printed on sheets of red and blue paper, which was used to decorate the newspaper - a three-masted schooner - and the brand was marked: the price is one cent for newspapers and local items and 4 cents for nonresidents.
The print quality turned out to be very poor, and in order to exclude fakes, the postmaster ordered the employees of the sweat departments to affix their stamps. After 17 years, one of these brands - with the initials of the postman Edward White - caught the eye of 12-year-old boy from Georgetown Vernon Vaughan. She did not look very impressive, besides, someone cut off the corners, turning the rectangle into an octagon (maybe Vaughan himself), so the local collector N.R. McKinon, who collected rare stamps, paid only a few coins for the young businessman .
Record price
On July 17, 2014, a philatelic sensation took place at the Sotheby's auction in New York: the octagonal “British purple one-cent Guiana” was put up for auction. By that time, she had become a legend among collectors - the only surviving rarity from that party, which received the names Princess of Philately and Mona Lisa for its uniqueness. Its value was indicated by the absence of a one-cent British Guiana in the collection of the Queen of Britain, which stores the most expensive postage stamps in the world - one of the most complete collections in the world.
This brand, like many rarities in this particular world, has acquired its history with an indispensable raid of mysticism. So, the last known until that time the owner of the “Princess”, the American rich man John Dupont, died in prison in 2010, where he was serving time for the murder of Olympic champion in freestyle wrestling Dave Schultz, committed by him in 1996, allegedly in a moment of mental confusion. Because of this, the philatelic "Mona Lisa" was in the dark for a long time.
In two minutes of trading, an octagonal piece of sloppy-looking red paper was bought by an unknown buyer for $ 7.90 million (without a commission from the organizer of the auction, $ 1.58 million). According to some reports, the buyer was a collector, not an investor, and he promised to show the brand from time to time at philatelic exhibitions.
The Holy Grail
The used postage stamps are quenched - that is, an ink stamp is usually applied to them, usually with the post office number and date, and to reuse the stamp, you need to wash off the ink from it.In the 60s of the XIX century, the American postal service decided to find a way to prevent such "savings". It was proposed to apply special stamping on marks in the form of dots, through which ink was absorbed into the paper fiber and could not be completely removed. This embossing is called wafer (eng. - grill). Different types of stamps were used, and each type of stamping was assigned its own designation - the letter of the English alphabet (11 in total: from A to J and Z). This method of protecting state money turned out to be very impractical, and soon the use of embossing ceased, and collectors got rare stamps of a special kind.
One of these stamps - 1 cent face value, on which the image of one of the founding fathers of the United States Benjamin Franklin was printed, was issued in 1868 and had stamping type Z. It turned into a rarity - today only two surviving copies are known, one of which kept at the New York Public Library. In 2005, this brand, which is commonly called the "Holy Grail", or "Z-Grill", became known at that time as the most expensive brand in the world. The second copy was exchanged for a block of 4 brands of a very valuable type - “Inverted Jenny”. The catalog included the value of the Holy Grail - $ 3 million.
Million for the mistake
Among philatelists, as well as among other collectors, the state of new arrivals is valued: appearance and preservation. In the case of postal signs, quicklime copies and those that have retained the adhesive layer on the back side are especially appreciated.
But the main philatelic rarities are stamps, the price of which is sky-high, having their own name and a fascinating history, most often came to light as a result of technological errors in printing.
This is the "Sicilian error of color." For some unknown reason, several signs of the postal payment of the Sicilian kingdom with a face value of 1/2 grains were printed in blue, which was intended for stamps with a face value of 10 grains. This happened in 1859, and after a short time, Sicily became part of Italy, which further increased the uniqueness of this brand.
One of two copies known to collectors was sold at auction for $ 2.72 million. Today, “Sicilian color error” is the most expensive brand that contains a printing error.
Colorful rarities
In 1855, the first stamps decided to print in Sweden. And again, a printing mistake made one of the brands a rarity. The small currency of the Swedish kingdom of that time was called skill, and the “regular” paper rectangle worth 3 skills had a pleasant green color. How the yellow mark of this denomination appeared and why only one copy was preserved is unknown. But in 2010, the most expensive brand in the world was called the “Yellow three-skilling”, or “Swedish unique”, and it cost $ 2.3 million.
The tiny kingdom of Baden, which called itself the Great, also issued its own postage stamps in 1851. Stamps with a nominal value of 9 cruisers were printed on pink paper, but due to the absent-mindedness of the manufacturer (or for some other reason), one green appeared among the sheets of the desired color.
It turned out exquisite in color stamps with a print in black and blue-green, which received the name of the Baden color error from professionals. There are very few of them left, and the cost of one quick-found specimen in 2008 reached $ 2 million.
The name of the island of Mauritius appears in unofficial but generally accepted names that designate two very valuable and rare collection stamps: “Blue Mauritius” and “Pink Mauritius” (which is actually orange). Their high cost, and each of them is estimated at about a million dollars, is due to their antiquity (they were released in 1847) and the non-standard inscription “Post office”, which for a long time was considered a mistake of the engraver who made the cliche. Subsequently, “Post paid” was printed on the stamps.
The cost of philatelic rarities is a variable concept, and many legendary prints with a unique history can claim the title of “most expensive brand in the world”. For example, the same “Inverted Jenny” is an American brand of airmail, in the center of which the image of the JN-4 “Jenny” is printed upside down.
The most expensive brands of the USSR
The philatelic history of any country contains pages that make the heart of a true collector tremble.
When the First All-Union Philatelic Exhibition opened in Moscow in 1932, each participant received a souvenir sheet with four stamps. Overprints were made on some sheets: “To the Best Drummer,” and several sheets were inscribed. Such a block was printed on very thick paper, which is why it was called Cardboard. It became the most valuable exhibit for the domestic philately, when one of the registered sheets was sold at a New York auction for $ 766 thousand.
Unlucky pilot
Another famous brand is Levanevsky with an overprint. They did not have time to prepare a special brand for the flight of the famous Soviet pilot across the ocean. Therefore, a stamp with his image dedicated to the rescue of the Chelyuskin residents was overprinted with the Moscow-San Francisco flight.
The number of errors was catastrophic: the overprint was turned upside down, in the word Francisco the letter “f” was lowercase - such a brand could not but become a rarity. Interestingly, the error with the small “f” was corrected, but the overprint was not upside down.
The legendary “Consular fifty dollars” came about when for the Soviet consulate in Germany, the postage stamps of the Russian Empire in 50 kopecks were stamped with the denomination in German stamps and the inscription: “RSFSR”. The seditious stamp was quickly taken out of circulation, and the surviving copies became the collector's dream, and now these are the most expensive stamps of the USSR, along with a dozen other rarities.
Successful investment
They say that people are divided into normal and collectors, but does not a person who has such a fascinating reason for easy insanity inspire respect? In addition, the value of the most expensive brands does not get lower over time, which means that buying philatelic rarities is a very profitable investment.
