The most expensive postage stamps in the world

For a small piece of paper enthusiastic philatelist is ready to shell out millions of dollars. Postage stamps are one of the most expensive hobbies for true connoisseurs.

In our top ten today collected the most expensive postage stamps in the world .Owners of many of them prefer to remain anonymous, acquiring priceless copies through third parties at auctions such as Sotheby's.

10." Holy Grail "

The mark in one cent was issued in 1868.In total, there are two copies of this rare brand in the world. One is stored in the Public Library in New York, and the second was purchased by an anonymous for $ 2,970,000.

9. "Sicilian color error"

The value of this brand in the color error. The entire series, released in 1859, was yellow, but one copy for some unknown reason was printed in blue tones. It was bought by an unknown collector for $ 2,720,000.

8. "Baden Color Error"

As in the case of the Sicilian brand, the value of this limited edition is that it was mistakenly printed on blue-green paper instead of pink. The series was released in 1851.Today the cost of Baden's color error is $ 2,000,000.

7. "The whole country is red"

This rare brand was released in China in 1968.In May 2012, one of the copies was purchased at the auction of "China Guardian" for 7.3 million yuan or $ 1,150,000. The brand is the youngest among the rarest.

6. "Black Penny"

This rare brand with the profile image of the British Queen Victoria - is the first postage stamp in the history of .The "black penny" was printed in 1840 with a circulation of 68.8 million copies. The price of a quickened stamp today is from $ 6,000.

5. "Inverted Jenny"

A series of stamps with the image of the biplane "Jenny" was printed in 1918 incorrectly - the picture was turned upside down. Of the 100 brands of the defective lot, only a few single specimens have survived and a couple of blocks of four brands. The cost of "Inverted Jenny" - from $ 600 thousand to $ 3.1 million

4. Z Grill with Benjamin Franklin

Z Grill - is a method of embossing, which was used to protect against forgery. In 2005, the acquisition of a block of four brands was valued at $ 3 million. The owner of Z Grill with Benjamin Franklin became the world-famous philatelist Bill Gross.

3. The first brands of Mauritius

The circulation of these brands was issued in 1847.The stamps are notable for the error - instead of the stamp Post Paid( Collected Paid) to the left of the image on them appears the inscription Post Office( Post Office).The last public sale of the brand was fixed in 2011 at a price of $ 1,670,000.

2. "Yellow Three-Scaling"

The uniqueness of the brand is in the typographical marriage. All such brands were printed on paper of green color, and this invaluable copy turned out to be yellow. Mark was very often resold. The price of the last transaction is unknown, but the owner insured the "Yellow Three-Scaling" for $ 15 million.

1. "British Guiana"

The most expensive brand in the world was purchased at Sotheby's auction in June 2014 for $ 9,013,000. At the same time, the brand value is only 1 cent. The value of the specimen is that it was the only one that survived from the limited edition of 1856.The stamp was printed on purple paper without factory perforation by the London edition of the Royal Gazette.