Expensive Stamps from 1849 to 1851

Expensive stamps from 1849 to 1851 appear to have gotten that way due to printing errors from either the wrong color paper, poor quality paper that was unpopular, poor adhesive, and a host of other problems.

The rarity of the stamp is because the mistakes were caught early in the process, therefore only a few of the mistakes were printed. Stamps can also be expensive if they are used, unused and on covers (which are basically letters).

So if you ever run across a stamp and you're not sure about it's value, please investigate before selling. It may be more expensive than you think it is.

Bavaria 1849 - 1 Kreuzer Black Tete-Beche Pair

Printed in 1849, the 1 Kreuzer Black issue was one of the first stamps issued in the German State of Bavaria. Originally printed in panes of forty-five stamps, the tete-beche varieties were created when a few cliches were mistakingly inserted into the printing plate upside-down.

It is unknown how many of the stamps were printed in with the inverted plates, but only three tete-beches are known to exist today. Each of the three tete-beche pairs have a different position and no tete-beche varieties are found in any of the complete panes still in existence.

A block of twelve stamps featuring a tete-beche variety was originally found in the Ferrari collection. In 1923, at a Paris auction, the block was sold to New York native Alfred F. Lichtenstein, a rarities collector referred to by many as "the philatelist's philatelist."

Upon his death, his daughter, Louise Boyd Dale, inherited the error block where it was kept by the Anne Boyd Lichtenstein Foundation until 1990. The 1849 Bavaria 1 Kreuzer tete-beche pair has a value in today's market of $125,000.

France 1850 - 15¢ tete-beche pair

The 15¢ tete-beche 1850 pair are stamps that are joined together with one image right-side up, and the other one is upside-down. These types of stamps can be joined either horizontally or vertically, and were sometimes produce this way on purpose, for collectors.

It is said that this is what happened with the 15¢ tete-beche pair. That printer Anatole A. Hulot purposely put some of of the cliches upside-down. Supposedly this was done as a control, so that forged sheets could be easily detected.

At least 6,000 of these stamps were printed, but between 1850 and 1853, most of the single stamps were used to mail local letters.

There is only one known copy of the stamp today. And it is on a cover that was mailed to New Orleans, from Paris in 1852. 44 years later, the stamp was purchased by Count Philipp la Renotiere von Ferray, who paid $1,683 dollars for it.

In 1924, the cover was sold during a Ferray auction, but then it vanished, and no one seemed to know where it was, that is until it showed up at the PhlexFrance 1989 Exposition. The cover was sold again in 2003 for $301,000.

Hawaiian Missionaries 1851 - 2,5 and 13 Cent Stamps

The first stamps to be issued in Hawaii - in 1851 - were the 2 cent, 5 cent, and 13 cent denominations that is referred to as the "Hawaiian Missionaries."

The stamps were called this because of the American Missionaries using them to mail their letters back to the continental United States.

As with so many other stamps issued in the 18th and 19th century, these were also crudely engraved, and they were also printed on poor quality, thin paper.

These stamps are extremely rare, because hardly any survived. The set that is most rare, is the 2 cent denomination. There are only 16 known copies of this stamp. The unused 2 cent Missionary is worth $760,000, and the used 2 cent is worth about $225,000.

British Guiana 1851 - 2 Cent Cottonreel

The 1851, 2 Cent Cottonreel was one of the first circular stamps to be printed in British Guiana. It is called the "cottonreel" because they look so much like the circular labels that are glued to the ends of spools of cotton.

These stamps are black ink printed on different colored paper, and most were cut, following the round circle, which made the ones that were cut square very expensive.

There were 2 cent, 4 cent, 8 cent and 12 cent stamps printed, but the 2 cent is the one that is most valuable. Ten examples were recorded, 3 are on covers, and each cover has a pair, and 4 are singles that have been used. The value today would be over $70,000.

Baden 1851 - Baden 9 kreuzer Black on Green Error

On May 1, 1851, the first four stamps were issued in the Grand Duchy of Baden, a German Empire State. These stamps were the 1, 3, 6, and 9 Kreuzer denominations, which were designed like Bavaria's stamps.

However there was a color misprint on the 9 Kreuzer stamp, that caused it be titled the "9 Kreuzer error." Instead of being printed in pink, the stamp was printed in cyan, which is a sea foam green color. This color was slated for the 6 Kreuzer value, not the 9 Kreuzer value.

Collectors know of only four examples of this color error. One is in mint condition, and the other three are canceled. The one in mint condition was auctioned in Berlin in 1919, Then it was sold again in 1997 for $603,750

Canada 1851 - 12 pence Victoria on Laid Paper

The 12d Victoria stamp was issued in Canada, on June 14, 1851. It has a picture of a young Queen Victoria, which was taken from the full-length painting done by Alfred E. Chalon.

The 12d was the stamp to use at that time, because the 1 shilling stamp had too many differing values, depending on where you lived in North America, and they wanted a stamp that was the same value regardless of where you lived.

The Stamp was printed on vertically laid, poor quality paper, by Rawdon, Wright, Hatch, and Edson. Only 1,450 stamps were sold, because neither the public nor the postal service liked the irritating, poor quality paper. But the stamp also cost too much and the adhesive did not stick to the letters.

So after a few years, they stopped selling the stamps. It wasn't until 1857 that the remaining 49,550 stamps that weren't sold, were withdrawn, then destroyed.

It is believed that between 100 and 150 examples of the 12d black is still in existence today, but nothing has ever been confirmed, and no one really knows for sure if this is even true.

However, on April 30, 1974, Andy Kosztandy, the manager of the Postal Stamp Department of Charlton Numismatics, Ltd., purchased a single for $17,000 and a mint corner marginal pair was purchased by the Canadian National Postal Museum in 1975 in Ottawa. The price was $125,000.

Then Stanley Gibbons International had an unused pair that they sold for 51,000 in 1977, and in 1978, a New York collector bought a single stamp for $90,000 at a Greg Manning auction. In 1980, another unused single was sold for $75,000 at auction, and on May 10,1980 there was yet another single sold for $126,500 to a Canadian collector.