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:

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

Current political entities[]

Austria[]

• Red Mercury – newspaper stamp

Belgium[]

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

Bermuda[]

Brazil[]

• Bull's Eye

Canada[]

• Canada 2c Large Queen on laid paper – Rarest Canadian stamp
• Bluenose
• Canada Scott 10 - 6d Deep Reddish Purple Pence 1857
• Canada Scott 13 - 6d Perforated Pence 1859
• Canada Scott 40e - Ten Cent Small Queen Pale Milky Rose Lilac First Montreal Printing 1874

China[]

• Red Revenues – 1897 provisionals, issued by the Qing dynasty
• – the first official Chinese stamps, issued by the Qing dynasty
• The Whole Country is Red – 1968 design error stamp
• Golden Monkey stamp – 1980 Chinese zodiac stamp

Hong Kong[]

• – First overprinted commemorative stamp in the world (Commons Image)

Finland[]

• – Most valuable postal stationery

France[]

• Ceres – France's first stamp

Germany[]

• Baden 9 Kreuzer error – stamp printed on blue-green instead of pink paper
• One kreuzer black – issued 1849 in Bavaria, first German postage stamp
• Sachsen 3 Pfennige red – Saxony was the second German state to issue postage stamps
• Vineta provisional – an unauthorized issue
• Yacht issue – a common design of postage stamps for the German colonies

Greece[]

• "Solferino" - Large Hermes head of 40 lepta, lilac-rose on greenish paper (1871) - image

Honduras[]

•  [ru] – Black airmail overprint (two currently known)

India[]

• Scinde Dawk – First stamps in Asia
• Inverted Head Four Annas
• Indian 10 Rupee Mahatma Gandhi postage stamp – Mahatma Gandhi 10 rupees stamp 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
• – Unique error
• Gronchi Rosa

Jamaica[]

• Jamaica 1 shilling inverted-frame stamp error
• Jamaica 6d abolition of slavery postage stamp
• Jamaica 1956-58 £1 chocolate and violet
• Jamaica 1968 human rights stamps

Japan[]

Libya[]

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

Malta[]

• Halfpenny Yellow (1860–84) – Malta's first stamp
• Saint Paul 10s black (1919) – one of Malta's rarest stamps
• Melita issue (1922–26) – stamp issue commemorating Malta's self-government

Mauritius[]

• Mauritius "Post Office" stamps

The Netherlands[]

• (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
• (1927) – Three-hole, four-sided interrupted perforation

New Zealand[]

• – Miscoloured
• – Withdrawn because it showed an incorrect use of a car child restraint, though a number were still sold^[1]
• – Sets of five stamps printed but destroyed before release, after causing public offense (with a very small number sold by mistake)^[2]
• 1904 Pictorial 4d Lake Taupo invert – Only one copy known

Romania[]

• Moldavian Bull's Heads – Issued by the principality of Moldavia in 1858

Russia[]

Russian Empire[]

•  [ru] (Tiflis unique) (1857) – One of the rarest Russian stamps issued in Tiflis, Georgia; only three specimens known
• First stamp of the Russian Empire (1857)
•  [ru] (1908) – A very rare Russian stamp with "Three pears" design; 15–20 specimens may exist

RSFSR[]

•  [ru] (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
• (1922) – 7,500-ruble blue, horizontal watermark, gutter tête-bêche block of four; possibly unique
• 70r Red Army Soldier error (1922) – 70-ruble perforated 12.5 or imperforate orange red error; position 72 in part of the issue; 4 imperforate specimens known

Soviet Union[]

• (1924) – A surcharge of 10 kopecks on 5-ruble green type II, basic stamp wide "5", complete pane of 25; unique
•  [Wikidata] (1925) – 15-kopeck yellow, "Peasant", Gold Standard issue, if in mint condition
•  [Wikidata] (1931) – A very rare Soviet stamp, especially if imperforate; 24 imperforate specimens known
•  [ru] (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
•  [Wikidata] (1935) – San Francisco inverted surcharge with small Cyrillic "f"; possibly unique (see also Overprint#Commemorative overprints)
•  [Wikidata] (1964) – Plate error (asymmetric star) of the first Soviet numbered Tokyo Olympic souvenir sheet

South Africa[]

Sweden[]

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

Switzerland[]

• Basel Dove
• Double Geneva
• Zurich 4 and 6

Trinidad[]

• Lady McLeod private local post

Uganda[]

• Uganda Cowries – 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 the 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[]

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
• Statue of Liberty Forever stamp (2011) – Largest run of an error on a US postage stamp (10.5 billion)
• Lost Continental – 1875 24c Winfield Scott
• Pagsanjan Falls stamp – A postage stamp issued on 3 May 1932, noted for its printing error

Uruguay[]

• 1856, 80c. green, Ferrer block of 15 – Unique
• – Unique
• – Unique
• – 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

See also[]

•  Philately portal

References[]

External links[]

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