This isn't my collecting area, but it's so rare that something like this appears, it's worth noting.
In 1980, West Germany designed and printed a sheet of stamps commemorating the Moscow Olympics. Once the decision was made by several western nations to boycott the Olympics, the stock of unissued Olympic stamps (BRD MiNr. XIII) was destroyed, except for a small number of copies kept in government hands at the German postal museum.
Except there was a leak – the so-called Gscheidle-Irrtümer, or Gscheidle errors. The Postmaster General, Kurt Gscheidle, kept a single sheet of the stamps and took them home with him. Later, his wife, not realizing the significance of the stamps, used them as normal postage. A small, unknown number of these stamps therefore exist used – 26 used copies are known to-date.
At some point, his wife sent a letter to a friend and, as was custom at the time, enclosed a mint copy of the stamp for the friend to use in responding. This MNH copy survived unused, and is the only known mint copy in private hands.
It sold at Schlegel Auktionshaus yesterday for €194,000 + 20%, so about €232,000 (US$251,000).
Posted 05/17/2023 09:11 am
