Items16The creator’s order
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Basel DoveSwitzerland was only the second country to adopt postage stamps, and Basel's city post produced the most beautiful of the early ones. Designed by the architect Melchior Berri and launched in July 1845, the 2½ rappen stamp shows a white dove carrying a letter, raised in embossed relief, and it is…0 - 2
Alexandria "Blue Boy" Postmaster's ProvisionalBefore the United States issued national stamps, some postmasters made their own. Daniel Bryan of Alexandria, Virginia, had his typeset, and six survive on buff paper. The Blue Boy is the unique copy on blue paper, still on the envelope of a secret letter James Wallace Hooff sent to his cousin…0 - 3
Mauritius "Post Office" stampsFor many collectors these are the summit of the hobby. In 1847 Mauritius issued a one penny orange-red and a two pence deep blue, engraved locally on a small copper plate by Joseph Osmond Barnard. They read "Post Office" where the later issues say "Post Paid," and only 240 of the first printing…0 - 4
Hawaiian Missionaries (stamps)A small island kingdom joined the world's mail from its own print shop. Hawaii's first stamps went on sale on October 1, 1851, printed in blue on a hand-operated press at the Honolulu office of the government newspaper, The Polynesian. Collectors call them Missionaries because so many survivors…0 - 5
Baden 9 Kreuzer errorColor errors are the great drama of early philately, and this is Germany's best. Baden's 1851 9 kreuzer should have been printed on rose paper, but some were printed on the blue-green paper meant for the 6 kreuzer, apparently because the printer used the wrong plate with that paper.
For decades…0 - 6
Inverted Head 4 AnnasIndia's 1854 four annas was the first two-color stamp of the British Empire, so it had to go through the press twice: red frames first, then the blue heads of Queen Victoria the following day, once the sheets had dried.
The rush to get the stamps on sale let errors slip through, and a few sheets…0 - 7
Treskilling YellowThe archetype of the unique error. Sweden's 3 skilling banco of 1855 was printed in pale bluish green, yet one copy exists in yellow, the shade used for the 8 skilling. A young Stockholm collector, Georg Backman, discovered it in the mid-1880s and sold it a few months later for 7 kronor.
Experts…0 - 8
British Guiana 1c magentaShort of stamps while waiting for a shipment from London, British Guiana's postmaster had the colony's newspaper print an emergency supply in 1856. One 1 cent magenta survives. A Scottish boy, Vernon Vaughan, found it among his family's letters in 1873 and sold it to a local collector for 6…0 - 9
Penny RedThe Plate 77 Penny Red, 1864
Billions of Penny Reds were printed, and most cost very little. Plate 77 is the exception that should not exist: one sheet was printed from it in 1864 before the plate was found defective, and the authorities destroyed both the plate and the sheet. Nine stamps…0 - 10
Z GrillThe rarest American stamp is a plain 1 cent Benjamin Franklin of 1868, set apart only by its grill, a pattern of tiny points embossed into the paper so cancellation ink would soak in, of the rare type collectors label "Z." Two copies are known. One, from Benjamin Miller's collection, belongs to the…0
