A US$9.5 million rare stamp

In a packed room at Sotheby’s in Manhattan, this incredibly rare 19th century postage stamp, a tiny one-cent magenta from British colonial Guyana just sold for approximately US$9.5 million on Tuesday making it a new world record price for a stamp.

Measuring 1.25 inches (2.54 by 3.18 centimetres), the stamp is octagonal, printed in black ink and bears the initials of its past owners on the back.

Just a tiny piece of paper, this makes it the most expensive object in the world by weight.

Encased in glass, the stamp dates back more than 150 years and has passed through great collections, now breaking a world record price four times since 1922.

The auction house says the stamp is the only surviving example of a one-cent magenta, so rare that it is missing even from the British royal family’s philatelic collection.


Source: NST