First Penny Black Stamp Could Fetch Up To £6m At Auction

Reading the link referenced above, I'm still not getting the significance, especially in light of the fact that nothing dates the stamp, ties the stamp, or establishes its significance as "the first penny black". I think people are enamored with the story rather than the actual facts/evidence in question... or I'm just too much of a cynic and wary of items being contrived.

It's a moot point, as there's no scenario under which I would ever be a player, but even if I had the means there's no way I would even consider it. There are far more clearly established "firsts" that one could purchase for that amount of money.

Seems to me that it is one of 240 (sheets of 240, right?) of the first stamps printed, at best. I don't know where the other 239 are - knowing the Brit's penchant for immortalizing this kind of stuff, I expect the others are out there, each with some scrap of paper indicating its significance. Still, there were 240 made - this ONE being the first implies uniqueness, which it is not. Unless the rest of the sheet was destroyed and THAT was immortalized in the bookkeepping. Still 6 MILLION Pounds?

I'm out.

Nice early impression. I'll give it that.

Exactly where I sit.
I consider it sensible cynicism.

Good luck to the vendor, whatever the price reached,
But it means very little to me.
The close up of the stamp is nice though, lovely margins
Nice to see that part of the story.


It causes me to reflect, on a time many years ago,
I bought tickets to ERICH VON DANIKEN
and his talk on the book CHARIOT OF THE GODS.

It was delicious ruminating on what may have been, aliens and all that, but deep down, you kinda know it's all hype.

I view this stamp as all the great rarities that I like to view but, have no need to own. I go to museums to see Leoardo's work, or Rembrandt's work (NGA) ! as well as others. The inverted Jenny, the "Z" grill and the Magenta, all great rarities, an investment to some, a collectible to others and I wish them all well. It matters not to me the value but I do find Sotheby's history and provenance interesting and the historical context.... This is the first stamp.. thought invoking regardless of whether this is the first Penny Black. And the revolution in posting mail that this stamp initiated.
The only GB stamp I ever purchased, and not a very good one. Right here.
Cheers

Putting a bow on it: http://goscf.com/t/79263

tl;dr - It didn't sell.

I read a number of Erich von Däniken's books years ago and have seven of them in my storage unit, and I'm still convinced that the likelihood that aliens visited Earth in ancient times is greater than the likelihood that this stamp is the "first" Penny Black.

I'm content with the one I bought for $30 back in the 1980s.

While I find EKU interesting information, I know my luck and the odds are that as soon as I purchased an EKU an earlier one would appear out of the woodwork within a week. As such, I would rarely risk paying a premium for any EKU material.
Don

Were all the 240 stamps of this first sheet marked "A I"?

Wasn't the auction scheduled for Dec. 7th? We should have the results then.

Rob Roy - http://goscf.com/t/79263

Thanks. Any answer to my first question?

No, they'd have been marked from A-A onwards, so A-I was quite well through the alphabet.

So A-A is more likely to be considered "the first stamp"?

Since A-A was on the same sheet as it's brothers and sisters AND there was more than one plate I would be hard pressed to call A-A THE first stamp. In fact since more than one sheet was printed how would you know which A-A was THE A-A?

What if the whole sheet was printed at the same time? No wonder it didn't sell.

As the documentation states, it was a stamp from a trial printing. It comes with documentation that has been scrutinised.
Sheets were printed on a press with paper and plate passing through it. So, considering the plate has 20 rows of 12 stamps, you can argue it was 1 of the first 240 stamps.
If it passed correctly, you can argue it was one of the first 12 stamps.

The 'first' must be considered in this context and is clear to interested collectors. And it is very clear it did not come from the first issued sheet.

Consequently, I do not see why being part of a sheet as is clear to those who are interested, it should be no wonder it did not sell.
It is, very likely, the only example for which it can be ascertained it is the 'first' printing. In that way, it also is likely to be 'unique.'

Was it worth the amount asked? Obviously not at the time, as it did not sell.