{"id":680,"date":"2014-06-17T21:43:02","date_gmt":"2014-06-18T01:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/?p=680"},"modified":"2014-11-06T14:33:41","modified_gmt":"2014-11-06T19:33:41","slug":"british-guiana-1%c2%a2-magenta-sells-9-5-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/?p=680","title":{"rendered":"British Guiana 1\u00a2 Magenta Sells: $9.48 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"British_Guiana_13\"<\/a>The “superstar” of rare stamps, the 1856 1\u00a2 British Guiana Magenta, sold Wednesday evening at an auction for $7.9 million dollars, plus a 20% premium, for a total of $9.48 million. (Earlier reports had the net figured at $9.5 million. Hey, if you want to quibble about $20,000….)<\/p>\n

Sotheby’s, which sold the stamp at a New York City auction, points out that it is the fourth time the stamp has set a record price, and that the final price is nearly one BILLION times the stamp’s face value!<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are thrilled with tonight\u2019s extraordinary, record-setting price of $9.5 million \u2013 a truly great moment for the world of stamp collecting, David Redden, Sotheby’s vice chairman, said in a statement. “That price will be hard to beat, and likely won\u2019t be exceeded unless the British Guiana comes up for sale again in the future.”<\/p>\n

“When I was eight years old this was the most precious object in the entire world, and I never dreamed I would have it in my hands,” Redden added.<\/p>\n

Before the sale, Redden had called the Magenta “the superstar of the stamp world.”<\/p>\n

The stamp was sold by sold by the estate of John du Pont, the eccentric heir to the chemical fortune who was convicted of the murder of a wrestling coach. Some of the proceeds will go to the Eurasian Pacific Wildlife Conservation Foundation that du Pont championed during his lifetime.<\/p>\n

The stamp had not been on display since 1986. Du Pont would display it at major shows, but his arrest put an end to that. The Magenta was shown in New York, London, and Hong Kong as promotion for this sale. It also made a stop at the U.S. National Postal Museum in Washington for testing. The NPM hopes its new owner will allow the stamp to be exhibited there this fall.<\/p>\n

According to Sotheby’s, the previous record for a single stamp was US$2.2 million for the Swedish Treskilling Yellow in 1996. Sotheby’s provides the Magenta’s auction history:<\/p>\n

1922
\nARTHUR HIND, UTICA, NEW YORK
\nPurchased at the auction for then-record price of $35,000<\/p>\n

1970
\nIRWIN WEINBERG STAMP CONSORTIUM
\nPurchased at the auction for then-record price of $280,000<\/p>\n

1980
\nJOHN E. DU PONT, PENNSYLVANIA
\nPurchased at auction for then-record price of $935,000<\/p>\n

2014
\nPurchased at auction for new record price of $9.48 million<\/p>\n

The stamp was produced by a local newspaper printer in 1856 after the South American colony’s supply of regular stamps had run out. It was discovered by a 12-year-old Scottish boy living in South America in 1873 on his uncle’s mail, and sold for six shillings.<\/p>\n

Sotheby’s has produced a video on the history of the stamp. You can view it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Added\u00a0 6\/23<\/strong>: Some photos from the sale, courtesy World Stamp Show-NY2016: \"ph-2014-06-17-brguiana2\"<\/a>The crowd at the sale. I wonder how many of them were actual bidders.<\/p>\n

\"ph-2014-06-17-brguiana3\"<\/a>The hammer comes down, at $7.9 million (plus 20% buyers premium).<\/p>\n

\"saadi_shreve\"<\/a>WSS-NY 2016 President Wade Saadi and Development Chairman Charles Shreve at the sale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The “superstar” of rare stamps, the 1856 1\u00a2 British Guiana Magenta, sold Wednesday evening at an auction for $7.9 million dollars, plus a 20% premium, for a total of $9.48 million. (Earlier reports had the net figured at $9.5 million. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stamp-societies","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=680"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":688,"href":"http:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions\/688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/virtualstampclub.com\/lloydblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}