A rare 19th century stamp from British Guiana is expected to be sold for up to US$20 million when it is auctioned in New York in June.
A BBC News report quoted Sotheby’s as saying that the stamp, an 1856 one-cent Magenta, is regarded as the world’s most famous rare stamp by collectors and it might sell for up to £12 million (€15 million/US$20 million),
The report also said that the unique stamp has set a world record each of the three times it has been sold at an auction.
The stamp has not been on view publicly since 1986, when it was exhibited at the Ameripex 1986 International Stamp Show in Chicago, Sotheby’s said.
The stamp is reported as being the sole surviving example of its kind
and regarded as the most well-known of rare stamps. Printed in black on magenta paper, the stamp bears the image of a three-masted ship and the Latin moot “we give and expect in return.”
According to the BBC, the stamp was last bought in 1980 by John du Pont, a chemical industry millionaire, who kept it largely out of public view, by locking it away in a vault. Du Pont was jailed for fatally shooting an Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler in 1996 and later died in 2010, and the stamp is being sold as part of his estate.
The report added that the stamp was produced in Georgetown, British Guiana (now Guyana) after a shipment of stamps was delayed from London, threatening to disrupt the postal service.
The stamp carries a postmark, showing it has been used, and it was also initialed by a post office employee.
Its first owner was a Scottish boy who apparently found it among family papers in 1873.
