- British Guiana — $ 9.5 million
This 1 cent stamp was auctioned at Sotheby’s in 2014 and bought by Stuart Weitzman, who participated in the auction by telephone. The sale price was below the auction house’s initial estimate of $ 10-20 million — but still a world record. And British Guiana (also called «British Pink Guiana») is still the rarest and most expensive brand in the world. It only exists in 1 copy.
History of the emergence of British Guiana
A series of three stamps was issued on behalf of the postmaster of British Guiana, E. T.E. Dalton, as a contingency reserve until a shipment of stamps arrives from the UK. Two varieties were created: stamps with a denomination of 4 cents and stamps with a denomination of 1 cent. British Guiana is the only surviving one-cent stamp in the entire 1856 issue.
How British Guiana changed hands
In 1873, the stamp was discovered by a 12-year-old boy among the letters of his uncle. The boy sold the stamp to collector N.R. McKinnon for only a few shillings. Then the McKinnon collection came to the Liverpool merchant Thomas Ridpath, who showed the brand to specialists and learned that he had a fortune in his hands. Ridpath profitably sold British Guiana to the major philatelist Baron Philip von Ferrari. As time went on, the brand grew in value until the infamous John Eleuthera Dupont bought it for $ 935,000 in 1980. In 1997, DuPont was convicted of the murder of Olympian David Schultz and died in custody in 2010. According to Dupont’s will, 80 percent of the proceeds from the sale of the brand went to the former wrestler and Olympic medalist Valentin Yordanov and his family members. The rest is dedicated to the Eurasia Pacific Wildlife Conservation Fund.
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