The First Internet Dating Service

This is an actual advertisement placed in the newspaper Monitor in England in 1891:

A stamp collector, the possessor of a collection of
12,544 stamps, wishes to marry a lady who is an
ardent collector and the possessor of the Blue Penny
stamp of Mauritius, issued in 1847.

Of course, he is talking about the famous "Post Office" first issue of the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean.

What ever happen to love!

I wonder if he was successful?

Forget love, what ever happened to the Mauritius stamp.

He was not successful.

The stamps are still around, it's just that none of us could ever afford one - if one ever came on the open market again.

Talk about high expections.

He was trying to get his hooks into the "Blue Penny", so she still has it if she even did have it!

there were already over 12000 stamps in 1891?? geez, any idea how many there are now? what if I wanted to get everything, how many are we talking??

Now that's ambitious! I have no idea. Hundreds of thousands probably. Would be interesting to know. You talking simplified or with shade and perf varieties?? Hehe.

sigh why couldnt we afford a mauritus stamp. it cant be more expensive than some of the older us can it?

FWIW the island is heavenly

Not that I collect Mauritius, but from Stanley Gibbons, the 2 demoninations of the 1847 issue are around £500,000 for used (only a few unused survive, unpriced), and virtually every copy is in a museum. The 1848-57 issues are all in the 10's of thousands. Obviously they didn't print many It gets affordable around 1858.

I would love to go there one day, my wife and I are planning to.

Balf

its very nice you really should visit. if you go dont forget to get me a few stamps and notes and coins I want to keep my collection updated. of cours ei will pay for them :)

There are somewhere between 23 and 27 known specimens of the "Post Office" issues - a few on cover, I think five or six 'unused' and the rest obviously used. The reason there is no consensus is that some are suspected to be forgeries at worst and 'enhanced' at best.

There were thousands of 'facsimiles' printed in the late 1890s and early 1900s - supposedly from the original plates, but even that is in dispute.