The untold stories of the world’s rarest and most exquisite stamps 

Is stamp collection one of your favourite hobbies? If the answer is yes, and you are currently in New Delhi currently, you should definitely go and visit the five-day National Philatelic Exhibition, Amritpex 2023 at the Pragati Maidan. Organised by the India Post, the exhibition is set to display historical stamps and postal images that celebrates the nation’s glorifying 75 years of independence, alongside embracing other themes including New India, Nari Shakti, Nature & Wildlife and India’s History & Culture. Today, we are going to take you through the interesting stories of some of the world’s rarest stamps. No, these are not showcased at this exhibition. But they are worth your attention for sure.  

British Guiana 1 cent Magenta 
Often deemed as the Mona Lisa of stamps, the British Guiana 1 cent Magenta was born in 1856. As the story goes, it was printed out of sheer necessity when the British colony in Guyana (a country in South America) required stamps but could hardly wait for fresh stocks to be imported from England. Guess what they decided to do? They asked all their local publishers of Official Gazettes to print a stock of one cent stamps for newspapers and four cent octagonal ones for letters. They were printed on poor quality magenta paper with the image of a sailing ship on one side and the motto of the colonies on the other. It was “Damus Petimus que Vicissim” that literally translates to “We Give & We Seek in Return”. Now, while all the stamps were printed in white ink, the first one was printed in black to mark the start of the process. It disappeared as soon as it was printed. Now, nobody knows who stole it or what happened to it, until it was suddenly discovered by a 12-year-old boy in 1873. He had sold it to the British Postal Service for 6 shillings. Today, it is part of the Royal Philatelic Collection of the British royal family and is valued at a whopping INR 71 crores, making it not just the world’s most famous rare stamp, but also the most priced one. 

Trekskilling Yellow 
This Swedish stamp that can be traced back to 1855 is currently priced at USD 2.6 million. Appropriately nicknamed as the ‘three schilling banco error of colour’, the Trekskilling Yellow became famous because of its colour mistake. As it turns out, the stamp was supposed to be green in colour but turned yellow due to a printing ink fault. Only a single specimen exists today making it one of the most valuable and rare stamps in the world. Like British Guiana 1 cent Magenta, this too didn’t see the limelight until a teenager named George Willhelm Baeckman randomly pulled the stamp out from his dead grandmother’s trashcan in 1885. It remained with him as a keepsake until he sold it off a year later to a local stamp dealer for six kroners (Swedish equivalent of cents). At present, the stamp is part of Swedish billionaire Count Gustaf Douglas’ private collection.  

Blue & Red Penny 
Priced at USD 2 million, this pair of stamps was born in Mauritius in September 1847 and are among the rare-most stamps in the world. They were printed in two denominations, an orangish-red one penny and a deep blue two pence and depict the image of Queen Victoria. However, they became famous for being the first British Empire stamps to be printed outside the nation. In 1993, both the stamps were auctioned off for USD 3.8 million to an anonymous private stamp collector based in Port Louis, Mauritius. But he died thereafter and since then the pair of stamps has lived in Mauritius’ Blue Penny Museum.