Rarest Stamp

I have a New Brunswick #5 (Connell) with a CoA.

Since there are anywhere between 20 and 70 on the loose (depending on the source of information), it probably qualifies as rare with some articles saying it is one of the "rarest in the world."

I make no such claim. Its just nice to have one.

Saw a nice set of St. Louis bears once, not all of them but more then I've ever seen in one place.

Here's a photo I took at London 2010, A Festival of Stamps showing the Swedish Treskilling Yellow on display, information 'desk' and guard !



And below is the rarest item in my collection, also from London 2010.
A reproduction of the 1929 GB £1 UPU in a block of 4 printed on an original press. In Blue on thick paper.
Only 50 were released to the public 8 months after the event. The market price in June 2011 was £400 [$700 approx]. No quote since nor have I seen one for sale.



Poor quality scan...sorry !

Londonbus1

Londonbus1 ... very nice!

[To : Bill Weiss ] ... and Jay Tell will never get over not getting the recognition to his dying day...

The rarest I've seen in person was a set of GB 1913 Seahorses, top marginal blocks of 8, in all values, in unmounted mint condition. As of early 2014 they were displayed at Stanley Gibbons at 399 Strand with a price of £160,000. They are no longer on the SG website, and if they sold, that would be remarkable. The rarest items I own are GB 1840 1d (penny black) and 2d (penny red) with matching corner letters, US #1, and US #120 (1869 pictorials, 24c value).

As part of my U.S. Departmental collection, I have gathered a few of the Special Printings. In paticular, the second Special Printing. In that printing, two positions of the Overprint SPECIMEN, a lower case I was used, and the two positions can be identified. The 1 Cent Agriculture sold only 5234 copies so there were 52 of each of these. Not the finest copies know by far, but still scarce.

Most important word class rarity seen? Like others I saw the British Guiana 1 cent black on magenta of 1856, at Interphil I believe.

It stimulated my imagination as a young child collector, but by the time I actually saw it, it didn't do much for me.

Far more interesting to me was the material in the Rudolf Wunderlich exhibit at that same show, which I photographed in the frames and spent hours notating and studying. I had travelled to Philadelphia for my first international precisely because of this exhibit. Now, one of the items from that exhibit is in my collection. It is the original pencil and wash model for the proposed ten cent of 1870. It is unique.



I have several items which are unique, but this one is more philatelically significant than the others, since it is part of the earliest stage of development of a new series of postage stamps.

Seeing it in this scan I am really tempted to clean off some of the fingerprints and such it has accumulated over the years. They are not part of its original condition.

AS a 7 year old the british Guiana inspired me tremendously. I foumnd the very idea of it, and its rarity the stuff of dreams. And I've thought - many many times since - of going to B.G. and going through all their attics.

I too get really tired of hearing that phrase (maybe because I don't have any very very expensive stamps). I have tried to eliminate that phrase from my vocabulary and whenever possible I don't reply to the question.