A British Guiana one cent magenta stamp that sold for more than US$8 million is to be displayed at the Taipei Asia International Stamp Exhibition, which opens at the Taipei World Trade Center’s Hall 1 on Friday.
It is the first time that the world’s rarest stamp would be publicly exhibited in Asia, Chunghwa Post Co secretary-general Yang Su-chu (楊素珠) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
The stamp, which was sold in June 2021 for US$8.3 million to rare stamp dealer Stanley Gibbons Group PLC, is the only survivor of a small batch printed by the former British colony — now Guyana — in 1856.
Photo: Ting Yi, Taipei Times
“There was a shortage of stamps in British Guiana due to a delayed shipment of stamps from London,” Yang said.
The postmaster in the former British colony then authorized the publishers of a local newspaper, the Official Gazette, to print an emergency issue of stamps, Yang said.
The newspaper printed three different stamps for temporary use — the one cent magenta stamp, a four cent magenta stamp and a four cent blue stamp.
The one cent magenta stamp was intended for sending local newspapers, while the other two were for posting letters. All were supposed to be taken out of circulation once British stamps arrived.
The one cent stamp, which was printed in black on magenta paper, features a sailing ship and the colony’s motto Damus petimus que vicissim, which means “We give and expect in return.”
The exhibition is also to feature some other rarely seen stamp collections and postal items, including a Chinese envelope bearing Large Dragon stamps that were printed during the Qing Dynasty, which is the earliest known envelope bearing stamps printed by Chinese Imperial Post.
Only four envelopes bearing Large Dragon stamps were used in 1878, Chunghwa Post said.
The exhibition also includes an 1888 envelope bearing a Taiwan Commercial Postage Stamp, a 1890 government envelope franked with “Taiwan Stamps” and stamps issued by Chinese Imperial Post featuring a London print of coiling dragons, jumping carps and flying geese, the company said.
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