A pair of rare stamps bearing a picture of Chinese nationalist leader Sun Yat-sen sold for over $700,000 at a sale in Hong Kong on Saturday.

The world’s most famous stamp, the elusive “Post Office Mauritius”, was sold yesterday for a record breaking £1,053,090 ($1,600,000) at Spink in London.

This is a record price for a stamp sold in the United Kingdom! Nearly half a dozen bidders in the room participated as the price of the lot shot skyward.

The stamp was one of the highlights of the Chartwell collection formed by businessman and philanthropist Sir Cyril Humphrey Cripps.

International stamp collectors are all aflutter this week as Hong Kong prepares to host an auction of rare Chinese stamps including a copy of the fabled “1897 Red Revenue” — known as the most valuable Chinese stamp there is.

Hosted by Interasia Auctions, the sale will feature 2,200 lots representing the stamp and postal history of China, Hong Kong and Asia and will be held on July 31-August 1 at the Park Lane Hotel in Hong Kong.

International collectors will be able to bid online for such items as the 1897 Red Revenue Small 2c Green Surcharge which is known as the “The Red Lady in the Green Dress” and could sell for as much as HK$10 million ($1,300,000).

What may be the most valuable object in the world has gone on show in London amid tight security.

It’s an 1855 Swedish postage stamp, called “Treskilling Yellow”, printed in the wrong color, and it’s worth £5million.

Weighing just 0.03 grams, the rare stamp is thought to be the most valuable thing in existence by weight and volume.

Luxist inform us that rare South American stamps, in fact the world’s most valuable private collection of South American postage stamps, will be offered in a public auction in New York City on June 5 and 6, 2008.

The auction includes for instance the only surviving example of the 1859 one-peso “tête-bêche,” which has a pre-sale estimate of $400,000 to $500,000.
There is also an envelope from Chile with a unique block of 14 lithographed 5-centavo stamps of 1854 which is $400,000 to $500,000.
From Colombia there is a letter with a 5-centavo and a10-centavo stamp dated September 1, 1859, the first day these very first stamps of Colombia were issued The pre-sale estimate is $200,000 to $300,000.
You’ll find out more information on luxist and on siegelauctions

A New York man paid a whopping $825,000 for one of the most prominently flawed stamps in U.S. history.

The rare 1918 24-cent stamp shows an upside-down Curtis JN-4 biplane known as Jenny, a World War I training aircraft that became an airmail plane.

The mint condition red, white and blue stamp is said to be one of the finest known existing stamps from the original sheet of 100 misprints.