Verdens mest værdifulde frimærker

Valuable stamps can come in many different shapes, colors and sizes, and every one of them has very interesting stories to tell. Ever since the first issuance of the Penny Black in the 1900s, stamps have made their permanent mark in history and have become one of the most desired items of a collector. Stamps are tiny pieces of faded paper commemorating historic events and notable faces which were used to pre-pay for letters on envelopes and received by our ancestors -- who would've thought that such stamps are now worth a fortune? In case you have chanced upon a rare stamp, it might be one of the most valuable stamps out there, if you are lucky enough.

Det mest sjældne og mest værdifulde frimærke i verden

For serious stamp collectors, rare stamps and stamps with errors are their main targets to find. As time passes by, postage stamp values may increase incredibly, some can even reach more than a million US dollars. Have you ever wondered what the most valuable stamps in the world are? Still renowned as the "King of Hobbies" or the "Hobby of Kings", stamp collecting will always be around as long as there are stamp collectors who are willing to spend a lot of money in order to acquire rare and valuable stamps. Those who were able to do so have seen their investments double (or even triple) in value in a reasonably short period of time. Below are some of the rarest and most valuable stamps in the world. Please take note that thanks to the ever-available demand, the prices have increased. Also, keep in mind that there could be new philatelic rarities being discovered, so it pays to double check your stamp albums.

• Mauritius "Post Office"

Country: Mauritius

Estimated Value: About US$1.67 million

Grunden til at det er et af verdens mest værdifulde frimærker: Printfejl (Det printede ord, Postkontor skulle være Postbetalt)

I september 1847 udstedte Mauritius Postkontor frimærket på Mauritius, en britisk koloni. Frimærkerne kom i to forskellige værdier. Et en penny i orange/rød og en to pence i mørkeblå. Disse frimærker var engraveret af Joseph Barnard, som designede frimærkerne baseret på de første frimærker der var udstedt i Storbritannien i 1841 (Hovedet af Dronning Victoria) Selvom disse frimærker var lavet lokalt og havde en meget indfødt karaktaristika, så gjorde det Barnards navn legendarisk i Mauritius's posthistorie.

There were 500 of each value printed and issued on September 21, 1847, and many of these stamps were used on invitations sent out to friends and celebrities of Lady Gomm, the wife of the Governor of Mauritius, for a ball that she was hosting that weekend.

Ordene "Postkontor" kan ses på venstre side af frimærket, men fra udstedelsen i 1848 stod der i stedet "Post betalt" Mange frimærkesamlere mener, at ordet "Postkontor" var en fejl.

What made the Mauritius "Post Office" postage stamps some of the most valuable stamps in the world is because it has been part of the prized collections of famous or prominent stamp collectors such as: Alfred F. Lichtenstein (American philatelist), Arthur Hind (American industrialist and philatelist), Alfred Caspary (philatelist), Henry J. Duveen (art dealer and philatelist), Sir Ernest de Silva (Ceylonese business magnate and philatelist), and Sir William Beilby Avery (baronet and British philatelist).

As the years go by, the prices of these stamps grew astronomically. It was reported that one of King George V's secretaries heard about the news of a stamp being sold at an auction in 1904, and commented that "some damned fool" had paid a huge sum of money for only 1 postage stamp to which George suddenly replied, "I am that damned fool". King George V purchased an unused Two Pence Mauritius "Post Office" for a sum of £1,450, which was a world record in 1904. If we adjust the price via inflation rate, it would be £137,500 in the year 2010.

Det bedste af Mauritius Postkontor samlingen er eget af Hiroyuki Kanai som har ubrugte eksemplarer af et-penny og two-pence frimærker, kaldet "Bordeaux Cover" - Dette frimærke fik også tilnavnet "La piece de resistance de toute la philatelie" som betyder ("Det største frimærke indenfor filetali") Denne samling solgte Kanai i 1993 via David Felman (En auktionær) for en pris omkring $4 mio.

There are only 26 known pieces of the Mauritius Post Office stamps that exist today: 14 one-penny and 12 two-penny stamps. In 2011, a two-penny blue Mauritius Post Office stamp was sold at an auction for £1.05 million (US$1.67 million) in the UK.

• USA Benjamin Franklin Z-Grill

Country: United States

Estimated Value: About US$8.8 million

Reason Why It's One of the World's Valuable Stamps: Z pattern that is unique among grill templates used by the USPS

In February 1868, the United States Postal Service issued a 1-cent postage stamp featuring Benjamin Franklin. These stamps were common at the time, but what separates some of them from the others is the Z-Grill. The "Z" variant of a grill is pressed into the stamp, thereby creating tiny indents embossed into the paper. Grilling allows the cancellation ink to be readily absorbed into the paper, thus preventing people from reusing the stamps via washing out the cancellation marks. The grills were deemed to be impractical to use and so they were discontinued after 1870.

Der eksisterer kun to Z-Grill frimærker i dag, og begge har annulleret stempler på sig. Det første Z-Grill frimærke er en del af Benjamin Miller samlingen som er ejet af New Yorks offentlige bibliotek.

Det andet Z-Grill Frimærkes historie startede i 1998. Det blev solgt for $935.000 til en frimærkesælgerne, Mystiske Frimærke Firma. Siegel Auktionshus stod for auktionen, og frimærket blev en del af Robert Zoellner samlingen.

I oktober 2015 byttede præsidenten for Mystiske Frimærke Firma, Donald Sundmand, Z-Grill frimærket til Bill Gross, for en blok med fire omvendte Jenny Frimærker, som var omkring $3 mio. værd. Bill Gross blev dermed ejeren af den eneste komplette amerikanske frimærkesamling fra det 19. århundrede.

Fra d. 27. maj 2006 og til d. 1. oktober 2007, blev disse to Z-Grill frimærker sat på udstilling i det nationale post museum sammen med den første del af Benjamin Miller samlingen.

Z-Grill frimærket ses som et af de mest sjældne og værdifulde frimærker i USA (Samt resten af verdenen) og det forventes at have en værdi på omkring $8.8 mio.

• Omvendte Jenny

Country: United States

Estimated Value: About US$2.7 million

Reason Why It's One of the World's Valuable Stamps: Print error (image is upside down)

In May 10, 1918, the United States first issued the postage stamps of the Inverted Jenny, Jenny Invert or Upside Down Jenny. It was the first stamp ever in the US that was issued for air delivery. The image shows the Curtiss JN-4 airplane in the middle part of the design, which is distinctively upside down.

These stamps were printed on sheets of 100; however, each sheet had to be run twice through the printing machine. Thus, one pane was accidentally flipped on the second pass, which caused the error. They were already sold to the public before the error was eventually noticed. Since there was only one pane of 100 of these inverted stamps that were found, this print error stamp is probably the most famous error and one of the most valuable stamps in the history of philately.

In October 2005, a unique plate number block of 4 Inverted Jenny stamps worth US$2.7 million was bought by US financier Bill Gross. After purchasing the Inverted Jennys, he then traded them shortly with Donald Sundman, president of the Mystic Stamp Company (a stamp dealer), for one of the two only known surviving specimens of the Us Benjamin Franklin Z-Grill. Because of the trade, Bill Gross became the title-holder of the only complete collection of 19th Century US stamps.

• Treskilling Gul eller Tre-Skilling Gul

Land: Sverige

Estimeret værdi: Mere end $3.14 mio.

Grunden til at det er et af de mest værdifulde frimærker: Printfejl (Farven skulle være blå-grøn og ikke gul)

Treskilling i Gul er et frimærke fra Sverige, som der kun eksisterer et af i dag.

I 1855 udstedte sverige deres første frimærke, som havde det svenske våbenskjold som billede. Frimærket blev udgivet i 5 forskellige værdier og farver: 3 (Blå-grøn) 4 (Blå) 6 (Grå) 8 (Gul) og 24 (Rød) skilling. Det vides ikke rigtig hvorfor det gik galt, men pga. en printfejl, blev der brugt gul-orange papir i stedet for det blå-grønne på et enkelt af 3 skilling frimærkerne. Det gul-orange blev normalt brugt til 8 skilling frimærkerne.

Et skærmbillede taget fra StampWorlds online katalog, kan du se de fem serier af de første frimærker der blev udstedt i Sverige. Klik her for at gå til det svenske katalog.

Fejlen gik ubemærket hen indtil 1886, hvor en ung frimærkesamler, Georg Wilhelm Backman så frimærket, da han gik gennem sin bedstemors loft.

Det præcise antal af disse fejlprintede frimærker er ikke kendt. Derfor forventes det, at Treskilling i Gul er det eneste af dens slags, da der ikke er fundet andre lignende.

I 1996 blev det solgt på en auktion i Geneve, Schweiz for mindst $2.3 mio. I maj 2013 blev det solgt privat af en svensk politker og greve. Grev Gustaf Douglas.

• Britisk Guiana et cent sort på magenta.

Land: Britisk Guiana (Nu Guyana)

Estimeret værdi: Omkring $9.5 mio.

Grunden til at det er et af verdens mest værdifuldefrimærker: Produceret grundet for lidt frimærker.

I 1856 var der alt for få frimærker i Britisk Guiana fordi et skib fra London i England der skulle bringe dem, var forsinket. For at løse problemet bad postmesteren en lokal avis om at printe nogle midlertidige frimærker. Printerne lavede 3 typer. Et 4 cent frimærke i blåt. Et 1 cent frimærke og et 4 cent frimærke i magenta

Fordi det kun var en midlertidig løsning, bad postmesteren en af de ansatte om at skrive en signatur på frimærkerne, for at de kunne verificere dem. Frimærket var skåret i hjørnerne, så det lignede en ottekant.

It was first owned by a Scottish boy aged 12 years old who lived in South America during 1873. Surprisingly, the 1-cent magenta stamp has become one of the most valuable stamps as the time passed by. For the past 141 years, this stamp has been bouncing to and fro one collector to another, being sold privately or at public auctions for ever-increasing sale values. One of the main reasons it was deemed as one of the world's valuable stamps is because it was purchased by Count Philipp la Renotiere von Ferrary, a man known to be one of the world's greatest stamp collectors.

I det 21 århundrede er Britisk Guiana 1 cent mærket i sort og 1 cent mærket i Magenta kendt blandt frimærkesamlere og filetalister som verdens mest sjældne, mest kendte og mest værdifulde frimærke. Det blev udgivet tilbage i 1856 og kun udgivet i et midlertidigt antal. Det forventes kun, at der i dag eksisterer et, og det blev solgt for $9,500,000 d. 17. juni 2014.