Culture / Auctions

Rare Chinese stamp sells for record $332,000

A single Chinese stamp has sold for $332,000 at Zurich Asia’s “Stamps and Postal History” autumn auction in Hong Kong Friday. The 1897 Qing dynasty stamp was bought by a Beijing collector and set a new world record for a single Chinese stamp. It is an extremely rare 1897 small one-dollar overprint on a three-cent […]

Sep 23, 2009 | By Anakin

A single Chinese stamp has sold for $332,000 at Zurich Asia’s “Stamps and Postal History” autumn auction in Hong Kong Friday.

The 1897 Qing dynasty stamp was bought by a Beijing collector and set a new world record for a single Chinese stamp.

It is an extremely rare 1897 small one-dollar overprint on a three-cent Chinese Red Revenue stamp.

According to Zurich Asia, the stamp is one of 32-recorded copies of the original 50 stamps overprinted with the new value.

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(Before 1896, Chinese post service was supported by custom post. In 1897, as the beginning of Chinese post service, exclusive stamps were not ready for post service, so the administration of post had to use this type of stamps instead.)

Among the other items auctioned, a complete 1916 Chinese empire set of 16 stamps fetched $81,600, double its pre-auction estimate, the newspaper said.


 
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