top stamps

Top Stamps

1. Cape of Good Hope Stamp
The stamp was first issued in Cape of Good Hope in 1853, which makes it the first postage stamp in the Cape of Good Hope, and in the whole of Africa. The stamp is triangular in shape, its design is a female figure sitting on top of an anchor resting on top of a rock which symbolizes the Cape. The stamp was designed by Surveyor General Charles Bell and printed by M/s Perkins, Bacon & Co.

Estimated Price : $40,000
2. The Perot Provisional Stamp
The Perot Postmaster's Provisional of Bermuda is the first printed stamp of Bermuda. William Bennet Perot, the postmaster of the town of Hamilton, started this for the convenience of users. Perrot along with a friend came up with this idea since sometimes the postage in the mail was not enough and had to deliver the mails himself. He then wrote the words "1 penny" above the year on a stamp, and signed his name below. Thus a postage stamp was born.

Estimated Price : $115,000
3. Red Revenue Small One Dollar Surcharge
Originating in the seventeenth century (17th), it was the first surcharged stamp among all the red revenue stamps surcharged for postal use during the Qing Dynasty. Now about 30-some pieces still exist and only one used stamp is now exhibited in the China National Post and Postage Stamp Museum.

Estimated Price : $333,382
4. Blue Military Stamp
The Blue Military Stamp is a blue stamp for military use in China. In 1953, a set of three stamps, in orange, brownish red and blue, were designed and issued to the soldiers who were on active duty for free. But due to some security reasons, the stamp was discontinued but a small number of them still remain.

Estimated Price : $428,654
5. The Red Maiden in the Green Robe
One of China's postage stamps issued during the Qing Dynasty , the stamp is also known as a 2-cent Small Figure Surcharged on Red Revenue Stamps in green. During the dynasty's reforms, the stamps with silver were discarded and green ink became predominant on the Red Revenue stamps. The one vertical pair now sits in the China National Post and Postage stamp Museum.

Estimated Price : $444,477
6. The Whole Country is Red
Issued in 1968, the stamp is true to its name. Holding the "Selected works of Mao" the stamp featured a picture of a worker, a farmer and a soldier with a red map of China in the background imprinted with the golden words "The Whole Country is Red". The stamp had an error as the map of China was drawn incorrectly. As a result, all Chinese post offices had to stop selling the stamp. The face value of the stamp is 8 fen (1 US cent).

Estimated Price : $474,197
7. Canada s 12 Pence Black
This stamp is the most famous stamps in the world and was issued in 1851 features a portrait of the youthful Queen Victoria. Many copies of the Black Pence were printed, but due to its high denomination, only a few copies were sold while the remaining were taken off the market and destroyed in 1857.

Estimated Price : $488,900
8. Olive colored Queen Victoria s Head
Printed in 1864, this is the most expensive historical postage stamp of Hong Kong. However, due to a printing error, 52 sheets of the stamp were printed in olive color. The stamp's watermark was wrongly styled, and the word "CC" was printed in the wrong place. Among all 40 pieces of the Olive-colored stamps there is only one block of four such stamps existing.

Estimated Price : $824,648
9. British Guiana 1 Cent Magenta
British Guiana 1 Cent Magenta, printed in black on magenta paper, is one of the most costly postal stamps in the world. In 1856 during a shortage of these postal stamps, a postmaster happened to ask the local newspaper to print some 1- and 4-cent stamps. Very simple in its design, the four corners of the rectangle stamps were cut to turn the shape of the stamps into that of an octagon. An only copy of this stamp was discovered by Vernon Vaughan, a teenage Scottish schoolboy, while he was looking through his uncle's letters.

Estimated Price : $850,000
10. Post Office Mauritius
Again as a result of an error in postal stamps. In September 1847, while inviting friends and celebrities to a ball the Mauritius Post Office issued a set of stamps but the words of "Post Office" instead of "Post Paid" were engraved on the copper plate of the stamp. This ended up being a big mistake as 240 copies were sent before noticing the error. Only 26pieces remain today in the Post Office of Mauritius.

Estimated Price : $1.67 million