List of postage stamps

This is a list of postage stamps that are especially notable in some way, often due to antiquity or a postage stamp error. Among the best-known stamps are:

• Treskilling Yellow (Sweden)
• Penny Black (Britain)
• Bull's Eye (Brazil)
• British Guiana 1c magenta
• Mauritius "Post Office"
• Inverted Jenny (United States)
• Basel Dove (Switzerland)
• Benjamin Franklin Z Grill (United States)

Current political entities

Austria

• Red Mercury

Belgium

• "Leopold with the Epaulettes" (1849)
• Inverted Dendermonde (1920)

Bermuda

• Perot provisional

Brazil

• Bull's Eye
• Goat's Eye

Canada

• Canada 12d black
• Canada 2c Large Queen on laid paper – Rarest Canadian stamp
• Bluenose
• St. Lawrence Seaway invert

China, People's Republic of

• Chinese Golden Monkey stamp (1980 Chinese zodiac stamp)
• Red Revenues (1897 Provisionals)
• The Whole Country is Red (1968)

Hong Kong

• Hong Kong Jubilee 1891 – First overprinted commemorative stamp in the world (Commons Image)
• George VI - Queen Elizabeth Silver Jubilee 1948

Finland

• Finland Zeppelin "1830"
• Finland 20k black stamped envelope – Most valuable postal stationery

France

• Ceres – France's first stamp
• One franc vermilion
• Black twenty centimes

Germany

• Baden 9kr blue-green error of color
• Bavaria one Kreuzer black
• Saxony 3pf red sheet
• Saxony 1/2g on light blue paper error
• Vineta provisional
• Yacht issue

Honduras

• Black Honduras – Black airmail overprint (two currently known)

India

• Scinde Dawk – First stamps in Asia
• Inverted Head Four Annas
• Mahatma Gandhi 10 Rupees overprinted "SERVICE"
• Duttia 2 Annas with red seal (1894?) – A possibly unique Indian Feudatory State stamp

Ireland

• 1935 Irish 2d coil stamp

Italy

• Tuscany 3-lira ocher
• Tuscany 4-crazie Lion inverted tablet – Unique error
• Italy General Balbo triptych
• Gronchi Rosa

Jamaica

• Jamaica 1sh inverted-frame error
• Jamaica 6d abolition of slavery
• Jamaica 1956-58 £1 chocolate and violet
• Jamaica human rights set of three

Japan

• Japan 500m Dragon invert

Libya

• "Khadafi" 1986 – Ordinary set of 12 stamps; error in design resulted in its withdraw from circulation hours after being issued on January 1, 1986
• "Khadafi Prize" 1994 – Minisheet of 16 stamps; errors in design resulted in them not being released and instead substituted with a correct minisheet on December 31, 1994

Malta

• Halfpenny Yellow (1860) – Malta's first stamp
• Saint Paul 10s black (1919) – Malta's most expensive stamp

Mauritius

• Mauritius "Post Office"

The Netherlands

• Wilhelmina 5 cent orange (1891) – Creation of Carl Gietzelt, an employee of Joh. Enschedé; mentioned in NVPH as 35f.; 24 are known to exist, 10 are used of which 3 on cover.
• 7½ cent dark violet, syncopated type D (1927) – Three-hole, four-sided interrupted perforation

New Zealand

• 1906 Christchurch Exhibition 1d Claret Colour – Miscoloured
• 1996 Teddy Bear Health Stamp – Withdrawn because it showed an incorrect use of a car child restraint, though a number were still sold New Zealand Stamp Collector December 1996 issue
• Maori Performing Arts stamps – Sets of five stamps printed but destroyed before release, after causing public offence (with a very small number sold by mistake)
• 1904 Pictorial 4d Lake Taupo invert – Only one copy known.

Philippines

• Pagsanjan Falls stamp – A postage stamp issued on 3 May 1932, noted for its printing error.

Romania

• Cap de bour – Issued by the principality of Moldavia in 1858

Russia

• Tiflis stamp (Tiflis unique) (1857) – One of the rarest Russian stamp issued in Tiflis, Georgia; only three specimens known.
• First Russian stamp (1857).
• Three pearls (1908) – A very rare Russian stamp with "Three pears" design; 15-20 specimens may exist.
• Consular poltinnik (1922) – A rare 50-kopeck Russian consular tax stamp with Air Post and 1,200m overprint; estimated 50-75 specimens in existence. Overprint type IV occurs only twice per setting of 25, hence only four can exist.
• R.S.F.S.R. Definitives tete-beche block (1922) – 7,500r blue, horizontal watermark, gutter tete-beche block of four. Possibly unique.
• Red Army man (1922) – 70 rouble perforated 12.5 or imperforate orange red. Position 72 in part of the issue; 4 imperforate specimens known.
• Soviet Air Post "Wide 5" surcharged (1924) – A surcharge of 10k on 5r green type II, basic stamp wide "5", complete pane of 25. Unique.
• Limonka (postage stamp) (1925) – 15 kopek yellow, "Farmer" issue, if in mint condition.
• Aspidka (1931) – A very rare Soviet stamp, especially if imperforate; 24 imperforate specimens known.
• Personalized Kartonka (1932) – "All Soviet Philatelic Exhibition" in Moscow, souvenir sheet of four on thick card, with three line overprint "To the best shock worker of the All Russian Philatelic Society - President of the Moscow Philatelic Organization E.M. Nurk". 25 were issued.
• Levanevsky with overprint (1935) – San Francisco inverted surcharge with small Cyrillic "f". Possibly unique. See also Overprint#Commemorative overprints.
• Green souvenir sheet (1964) – Plate error (asymmetric star) of the first Soviet numbered Tokyo Olympic souvenir sheet.

South Africa

• Cape 4d black Triangle
• Cape 4d red error of color

Sweden

• Treskilling Yellow - Unique error, world's record auction sales price for a postage stamp.

Switzerland

• Basel Dove
• Double Geneva
• Zurich 4 and Zurich 6

Uganda

• Uganda Missionaries - The first stamps of Uganda, typewritten.

United Kingdom

• Penny Black - World's first postage stamp
• Penny Blue - Trial printings from a penny black plate
• Two pence blue - Issued for second rate step, at same time as Penny Black
• VR official - First official stamp
• Prince Consort Essay
• Penny Red - Improved follow-ons to the Penny Black
• Archer Roulette - Experimental separation of stamps
• Edward VII 2d Tyrian plum - Withdrawn before issue, but one used
• Postal Union Congress £1 stamp

Falkland Islands

• HMS Glasgow error

Gibraltar

• Gibraltar 10c missing-value error

United States

• St. Louis Bears
• Alexandria "Blue Boy" Postmaster's Provisional - Unique, entire.
• New York Postmaster's Provisional
• 1c Z grill - Rarest US stamp
• Black Bull - Dollar value of the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Issue
• Pan-American invert
• Inverted Jenny - The "upside-down airplane"
• Dag Hammarskjöld invert - Error deliberately mass-produced
• CIA invert - Modern error
• Forever Statue of Liberty Stamp (2011) – Largest run of an error on a US postage stamp (10.5 billion)
• Lost Continental - 1875 24c Winfield Scott

Uruguay

• 1856, 80c. green, Ferrer block of 15 – Unique
• 1858, 120c. blue, tête-bêche vertical pair – Unique
• 1858, 180c Sol de Mayo red error of color – Unique
• 1858, 180c. green, in mixed franking with 1860 thick figures 60 c. brown lilac – Unique on cover

Former political entities

British Guiana

• British Guiana 1c magenta

Ceylon

• Dull Rose – A 4 pence denomination issued on 23 April 1859, considered the most valuable stamp of Ceylon

Confederate States of America

• CSA #10 – Rarest Confederate Stamp

Kingdom of Hawaii

• Hawaiian Missionaries – First stamps of Hawaii

State of Buenos Aires

• Buenos Aires 1859 1p "In Ps" tete-beche pair

Western Australia (British colony)

• Inverted Swan

External links

• Stamp Magazine online World's rarest stamps (archived version)