British Guiana - 1856

Made in limited quantities in 1856 for use on local newspapers, there is only one known specimen to still exist. It features a ship, printed in black ink on magenta colored paper, along with the Latin motto "Damus Petimus Que Vicissim" or, translated, "We give and expect in return". The stamp's country of issue and value surround the ship design. [p]This specimen was found in 1873, by then 12-year-old Vernon Vaughan in the Guyanese town of Demerara. He sold the stamp for two shillings, the equivalent of no more than $2.50. The current owner of the stamp, who is serving a thirty-year jail sentence, purchased it in 1980 for the sum of $935,000.

Sweden - 1855 3 Skilling Color Error

The first stamp produced by Sweden in 1855 was normally printed in a blue-green color, however this rare stamp was mistakingly printed in a yellow orange shade. It is thought that this color variation occurred when a printing cliche of the 3 Skilling value was switched for a 8 Skilling value of the same issue. There is only one known specimen of this error, found in 1885 by a young boy in Stockholm named Georg Wilhelm Backman, while going through his grandmothers letters. While this stamp has gone through many hands, its most recent owner bought it at auction on November 8, 1996 for the sum of $2.27 Million Dollars.

British Guiana -1851 Cottonreel Stamp

Known as Cottonreel stamps, because they closely resemble the circular labels found on spools of cotton, there are only ten known specimens still in existance. These circular stamps were among the first stamps produced by British Guiana and, today, are valued at over $70,000.

France - 1850 25¢ blue unwatermarked tete-beche pair

French for "head-to-tail" or literally translated as "head-to-head," tete-beche refers to pairs of stamps joined together with one image upside-down in relation to the other. A tete-beche pair may be joined vertically or a horizontally. Many tete-beche issues are produced intentionally for collectors, however, high valued issues were the result of a printing error made during production. The error occurs when a die or cliche is positioned incorrectly for one or more stamps. It has been suggested, however, that printer Anatole A. Hulot intentionally inserted some of the cliches upside-down as a control for the detection of forged sheets. The 1850 25¢ blue unwatermarked tete-beche pair has a value in today's market of $140,000.

France - 1850 15¢ tete-beche pair

French for "head-to-tail" or literally translated as "head-to-head," tete-beche refers to pairs of stamps joined together with one image upside-down in relation to the other. A tete-beche pair may be joined vertically or a horizontally. Many tete-beche issues are produced intentionally for collectors, however, high valued issues were the result of a printing error made during production. The error occurs when a die or cliche is positioned incorrectly for one or more stamps. It has been suggested, however, that printer Anatole A. Hulot intentionally inserted some of the cliches upside-down as a control for the detection of forged sheets.
It is suggested in the original run of 900,000 stamps printed with the second plate in a two plate process, one tete-beche cliche occurred at position 80 creating 6,000 1850 15¢ Tete-Beche pairs. Most of the errors were used during 1850-1853 as singles for the local mailing rate, in fact there is only one known copy of the pair known to exist today. Originally mailed on a cover from Paris to New Orleans in 1852, the cover was bought by noted collector Count Philipp la Renotiere von Ferray some 44 years later for the sum of 7,500 francs ($1,683 USD). The stamp was sold in a 1924 Ferray auction and disappeared from public eye until 1989, where it resurfaced at the PhlexFrance '89 Exposition. In 2003, the original cover sold at a Spink and Behr auction for the sum of $301,000.

France - 1849 1f Vervelle Tete-Beche Pair

French for "head-to-tail" or literally translated as "head-to-head," tete-beche refers to pairs of stamps joined together with one image upside-down in relation to the other. A tete-beche pair may be joined vertically or a horizontally. Many tete-beche issues are produced intentionally for collectors, however, high valued issues were the result of a printing error made during production. The error occurs when a die or cliche is positioned incorrectly for one or more stamps. It has been suggested, however, that printer Anatole A. Hulot intentionally inserted some of the cliches upside-down as a control for the detection of forged sheets. The 1849 French Vervelle Tete-Beche pair was named after Ernest Vervelle, a Parisian delaer, who bought an ungummed sheet of the stamps in 1895 from the effects of printer Hulot. It has a value in today's market of $500,000.

Bavaria 1849 1 Kreuzer Black Tete-Beche Pair

Printed in 1849, the 1 Kreuzer Black issue was one of the first stamps issued in the German State of Bavaria. Originally printed in panes of forty-five stamps, the tete-beche varieties were created when a few cliches were mistakingly inserted into the printing plate upside-down. It is unknown how many of the stamps were printed in with the inverted plates, but only three tete-beches are known to exist today. Each of the three tete-beche pairs have a different position and no tete-beche varieties are found in any of the complete panes still in existence. A block of twelve stamps featuring a tete-beche variety was originally found in the Ferrari collection. In 1923, at a Paris auction, the block was sold to New York native Alfred F. Lichtenstein, a rarities collector referred to by many as "the philatelist's philatelist." Upon his death, his daughter, Louise Boyd Dale, inherited the error block where it was kept by the Anne Boyd Lichtenstein Foundation until 1990. The 1849 Bavaria 1 Kreuzer tete-beche pair has a value in today's market of $125,000.