List of postage stamps

The British Guiana 1c magenta

This is a list of postage stamps that are especially notable in some way, often due to antiquity or a postage stamp error. Among the best-known stamps are:

• Penny Black (Great Britain)
• Treskilling Yellow (Sweden)
• Bull's Eye (Brazil)
• British Guiana 1c magenta
• Mauritius "Post Office"
• Inverted Jenny (United States)
• Basel Dove (Switzerland)

Current political entities

Austria

• Red Mercury – newspaper stamp

Belgium

• Leopold with the Epaulettes (1849)
• Inverted Dendermonde (1920)

Bermuda

• Perot provisional

Brazil

• Bull's Eye
• Goat's Eye

Canada

• Canada 12d black
• Canada 2c Large Queen on laid paper – Rarest Canadian stamp
• Bluenose
• St. Lawrence Seaway invert

China

• Red Revenues – 1897 provisionals, issued by the Qing dynasty
• Big Dragon stamp – the first official Chinese stamps, issued by the Qing dynasty
• Chinese Golden Monkey stamp – 1980 Chinese zodiac stamp
• The Whole Country is Red – 1968 design error stamp

Hong Kong

• Hong Kong Jubilee 1891 – First overprinted commemorative stamp in the world (Commons Image)
• George VI - Queen Elizabeth Silver Jubilee 1948

Finland

• Finland Zeppelin "1830"
• Finland 20k black stamped envelope – Most valuable postal stationery

France

• Ceres – France's first stamp
• One franc vermilion
• Black twenty centimes

Germany

• Baden 9 Kreuzer error – Baden 9kr blue-green error of color
• One kreuzer black – Bavaria 1kr black stamp
• Saxony 3pf red sheet
• Saxony 1/2g on light blue paper error
• Vineta provisional
• Yacht issue

Honduras

• Black Honduras – Black airmail overprint (two currently known)

India

• Scinde Dawk – First stamps in Asia
• Inverted Head Four Annas
• India 10 Rupees Mahatma Gandhi postage stamp – Mahatma Gandhi 10 rupees stamp overprinted "SERVICE"
• Duttia – 2 annas with red seal (1894?), a possibly unique Indian Feudatory State stamp

Ireland

• 1935 Irish 2d coil stamp

Italy

• Tuscany 3-lira ocher
• Tuscany 4-crazie Lion inverted tablet – Unique error
• Italy General Balbo triptych
• Gronchi Rosa

Jamaica

• Jamaica 1sh inverted-frame error
• Jamaica 6d abolition of slavery
• Jamaica 1956-58 £1 chocolate and violet
• Jamaica human rights set of three

Japan

• Japan 500m Dragon invert

Libya

• "Khadafi" 1986 – Ordinary set of 12 stamps; error in design resulted in its withdraw from circulation hours after being issued on 1 January 1986
• "Khadafi Prize" 1994 – Minisheet of 16 stamps; errors in design resulted in them not being released and instead substituted with a correct minisheet on 31 December 1994

Malta

• Halfpenny Yellow (1860) – Malta's first stamp
• Saint Paul 10s black (1919) – Malta's most expensive stamp

Mauritius

• Mauritius "Post Office"

The Netherlands

• Wilhelmina 5 cent orange (1891) – Creation of Carl Gietzelt, an employee of Joh. Enschedé; mentioned in NVPH as 35f.; 24 are known to exist, 10 are used of which 3 on cover
• 7½ cent dark violet, syncopated type D (1927) – Three-hole, four-sided interrupted perforation

New Zealand

• 1906 Christchurch Exhibition 1d Claret Colour – Miscoloured
• 1996 Teddy Bear Health Stamp – Withdrawn because it showed an incorrect use of a car child restraint, though a number were still sold^[1]
• Maori Performing Arts stamps – Sets of five stamps printed but destroyed before release, after causing public offence (with a very small number sold by mistake)^[2]
• 1904 Pictorial 4d Lake Taupo invert – Only one copy known

Philippines

• Pagsanjan Falls stamp – A postage stamp issued on 3 May 1932, noted for its printing error

Romania

• Cap de bour – Issued by the principality of Moldavia in 1858

Russia

Russian Empire

• Tiflis stamp (Tiflis unique) (1857) – One of the rarest Russian stamps issued in Tiflis, Georgia; only three specimens known
• First stamp of the Russian Empire (1857)
• Three pearls (1908) – A very rare Russian stamp with "Three pears" design; 15–20 specimens may exist

RSFSR

• Consular poltinnik (1922) – A rare 50-kopeck Russian consular tax stamp with Air Post and 1,200m overprint; estimated 50–75 specimens in existence; overprint type IV occurs only twice per setting of 25, hence only four can exist
• R.S.F.S.R. Definitives tête-bêche block (1922) – 7,500-ruble blue, horizontal watermark, gutter tête-bêche block of four; possibly unique
• 70r Red Army Soldier error (1922) – 70-ruble perforated 12.5 or imperforate orange red error; position 72 in part of the issue; 4 imperforate specimens known

Soviet Union

The 1932 Personalised Kartonka

• Soviet Air Post "Wide 5" surcharged (1924) – A surcharge of 10 kopecks on 5-ruble green type II, basic stamp wide "5", complete pane of 25; unique
• Limonka (1925) – 15-kopeck yellow, "Peasant", Gold Standard issue, if in mint condition
• Aspidka (1931) – A very rare Soviet stamp, especially if imperforate; 24 imperforate specimens known
• Personalised Kartonka (1932) – "All-Soviet Philatelic Exhibition" in Moscow, souvenir sheet of four on thick card, with three line overprint "To the best shock worker of the All Russian Philatelic Society – President of the Moscow Philatelic Organization E.M. Nurk"; 25 were issued
• Levanevsky with overprint (1935) – San Francisco inverted surcharge with small Cyrillic "f"; possibly unique (see also Overprint#Commemorative overprints)
• Green souvenir sheet (1964) – Plate error (asymmetric star) of the first Soviet numbered Tokyo Olympic souvenir sheet

South Africa

• Cape 4d black Triangle
• Cape 4d red error of color

Sweden

• Treskilling Yellow – Unique error, world's record auction sales price for a postage stamp

Switzerland

• Basel Dove
• Double Geneva
• Zurich 4 and Zurich 6

Uganda

• Uganda Missionaries - The first stamps of Uganda, typewritten

United Kingdom

• Penny Black – World's first postage stamp
• Penny Blue – Trial printings from a penny black plate
• Two pence blue – Issued for second rate step, at same time as Penny Black
• VR official – First official stamp
• Prince Consort Essay
• Penny Red – Improved follow-ons to the Penny Black
• Archer Roulette – Experimental separation of stamps
• Edward VII 2d Tyrian plum – Withdrawn before issue, but one used
• Postal Union Congress £1 stamp

Falkland Islands

• HMS Glasgow error

Gibraltar

• Gibraltar 10c missing-value error

United States

• St. Louis Bears
• Alexandria "Blue Boy" Postmaster's Provisional – Unique, entire
• New York Postmaster's Provisional
• 1c Z grill – Rarest US stamp
• Black Bull – Dollar value of the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Issue
• Pan-American invert
• Inverted Jenny – The "upside-down airplane"
• Dag Hammarskjöld invert – Error deliberately mass-produced
• CIA invert – Modern error
• Forever Statue of Liberty Stamp (2011) – Largest run of an error on a US postage stamp (10.5 billion)
• Lost Continental – 1875 24c Winfield Scott

Uruguay

• 1856, 80c. green, Ferrer block of 15 – Unique
• 1858, 120c. blue, tête-bêche vertical pair – Unique
• 1858, 180c Sol de Mayo red error of color – Unique
• 1858, 180c. green, in mixed franking with 1860 thick figures 60 c. brown lilac – Unique on cover

Former political entities

British Guiana

• British Guiana 1c magenta

Ceylon

• Dull Rose – A 4 pence denomination issued on 23 April 1859, considered the most valuable stamp of Ceylon

Confederate States of America

• CSA #10 – Rarest Confederate stamp

Kingdom of Hawaii

• Hawaiian Missionaries – First stamps of Hawaii

State of Buenos Aires

• Buenos Aires 1859 1p "In Ps" tete-beche pair

Western Australia (British colony)

• Inverted Swan

References

1. New Zealand Stamp Collector December 1996 issue
2. glenstephens.com

External links

• Stamp Magazine online World's rarest stamps (archived version)