Stamp Collecting~that's Life.

Eight pages of the world's rarest stamps.
Life Magazine 1954
Apologies for scan, I am restricted to 90Kb.

No problem for me. I'm actually looking at mine right now! It's one of the few things in my "study room" that I can find right away.

It's the May 3, 1954 issue of LIFE Magazine, with a cover price of 20 cents!

One of the things I like about the article is that it shows a picture of both the front AND the back side of the 1c Magenta. How many times do you see a picture of the backside of a rare stamp in an auction catalog?

Indeed, khj, some lovely covers there also.
Interestingly James Mackay illustrates that this is not the rarest stamp in the world, as it belongs to other stamps where only one is recorded.
On a higher scale there are two examples of stamps where only half a stamp exists. :) British Guiana SG90b

Interesting. I'd like to see more; may have to check the library.
Kirk

Yes, it's worth a bo-peep, KirkS,
It also gives the then owners of the stamps, and there are some real philatelic heaveyweights amongst them.
Unfortunately the size of LIFE is hard to reproduce with scanned images
from an A4 scanner.

I have this one ! the cover on mine shows some age...isn't it great to compare the values from those days to today !! I paid 2 or 3 bucks for it at an "antique" shop !!

We have one in the store... $5 plus shipping....

David

Great cover..it has my Falklands Penquin(i do not have one) and my Guatemala Quetzal (have a whole flock)

Stamps being on such a high profile magazine cover just goes to show you how popular the hobby had become in the US.

When I look at the scan, I realize how little I know about stamps. Other than the Penny Black and the Falklands Penguin, I don't ever recognize these stamps.

Humbling ... and a little depressing. --KirkS

dont worry what would be really depressing is if you recognized them :)

Bumped thread.
Most can be bought for 30c a piece (1954)
World's rarest stamps.

The November 30th, 1959 issue of LIFE Magazine also has a beautiful cover all about philately. Many pages of that magazine are like this one, yet the emphasis isn't necessarily on rarities but the beauty of stamps.

Sadly, interest in philately has dimmed. I fear it will end up like Life Magazine itself.

Jack Kelley

That's funny, I recognized almost all of the stamps in the colour photo at top, and have most of them or another one in the series. There's a few more valuable ones I don't have, like the St Vincent 5/-, the Hawaii 12 cent, Ionian Islands, and Marschall Inseln 5 Mark. etc. Plus all mine would be used, making them rather less valuable.

I don't see any rarities on that cover.

That was the tricky bit, the cover in fact showed an example from Maluku Selatan.

The cover showed stamps to be had for circa 30c, the inside article showed the rarities.