An illustrated reference to the world's most famous and valuable postage stamps — how to identify each one, its history, and an estimated value range.
The Penny Black is the world's first adhesive postage stamp, issued in Great Britain on 6 May 1840. It featured a portrait of the young Queen Victoria and launched the modern prepaid postal system that the entire world copied.
The Inverted Jenny is a 1918 United States 24-cent airmail stamp on which the blue Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" biplane was accidentally printed upside down. Only one pane of 100 error stamps ever reached the public, making it one of the most valuable and famous stamps in the world.
The British Guiana 1c Magenta is the world's most famous and most valuable single stamp, and only one example is known to exist. Printed locally in 1856 as a crude emergency issue, this lone survivor last changed hands for roughly US$9.48 million in 2014.
The Treskilling Yellow is a unique 1855 Swedish 3 skilling banco stamp that was mistakenly printed in yellow-orange instead of its correct blue-green colour, making it one of the most valuable stamps ever sold.
The Mauritius "Post Office" stamps are an 1847 pair, the 1d orange-red and 2d deep blue, that rank among the most valuable stamps in the world. They were among the first postage stamps issued anywhere in the British Empire outside Great Britain, and only about 27 examples survive across both values. Their fame comes from a single detail: the early printing reads "POST OFFICE" along the left margin instead of the "POST PAID" used on later issues.
The Ceres issue of 1849 was France's very first postage stamp. Designed and engraved by Jacques-Jean Barre, it shows the profile of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture and the harvest. The stamps are imperforate and line-engraved, and the rare 1 franc vermilion is among the most prized stamps in French philately.
The Bavaria 1 Kreuzer black, nicknamed the Schwarzer Einser (Black One), was issued on 1 November 1849 and was the first postage stamp of Bavaria and of any German state. It is printed in black with a large numeral 1 at the center and is imperforate.
The Penny Red is the red-brown British one-penny stamp that replaced the Penny Black in 1841. It uses the same Queen Victoria portrait but was printed in red-brown so black cancellations would show up clearly and could not be cleaned off for reuse. It is one of the most common antique stamps in the world, so most examples are inexpensive — but certain plates and varieties, above all the legendary Plate 77, are extremely valuable.
The 1847 5¢ red-brown Benjamin Franklin (Scott 1) and the 10¢ black George Washington (Scott 2) were the first general-issue postage stamps of the United States. They were engraved and imperforate, printed by Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Edson of New York, and released on July 1, 1847.
Spain's first postage stamp was the 6 cuartos black, issued on 1 January 1850 and bearing a left-facing profile of Queen Isabella II. It is lithographed, imperforate, and printed without a watermark.
