Rare Indian stamps sold for record £500,000

19 April 2017

STANLEY GIBBONS INVESTMENT

Rare Indian stamps sold for record £500,000

Stanley Gibbons, the world's pre-eminent, prestige collectibles merchant, has sold one of the rarest pieces of Indian Philately to a private collector-investor in Australia for £500,000, the highest price ever paid for a single Indian philatelic item.

The unique strip of four 1948 Gandhi 10 rupee Purple-Brown and Lake 'SERVICE' stamps is considered the most important and desirable item of post-1947 Indian philately, with only single examples of this great rarity otherwise recorded in private hands. Stanley Gibbons previously sold one of these singles for £160,000 to a client in Uruguay last year.

Only two sheets of 50 stamps originally received the 'SERVICE' overprint, of which one remains intact in the Delhi Postal Museum. From the issued sheet, supplied to the Governor-General's Secretariat, only thirteen single examples are authoritatively recorded, including this strip of four and a block of four in the Royal Philatelic Collection, owned by HM Queen Elizabeth II, which is believed to be the world's largest and most valuable private stamp collection.

The recent sale follows that of another Indian philatelic rarity, the famous 'Four Annas', which sold in March this year for almost £110,000 (a stamp where the head of the young Queen Victoria is inverted in error). The string of sales of high profile, Indian rarities to collectors and investors around the world reinforces the strength of the Indian stamp market and the continued desire of both affluent collectors and sophisticated investors to seek and secure rare, heritage stamps.

Stanley Gibbons is also fortunate to have one of the world authorities on Indian stamps working for the Group, as he has done full time, a little after completing his PhD in Classics from Caius College, Cambridge in 1980.

Keith Heddle, Managing Director of Investments at Stanley Gibbons, said: "The market for high-quality Indian rarities has been strong for several years and is supported by the on-going desire of the wealthy, Indian diaspora and savvy international clients to own these historic assets. Given Stanley Gibbons' specific expertise, we are best placed to identify, authenticate and trade rare Indian stamps of the highest quality."

Ends

Contacts:

The Stanley Gibbons Group

Established in 1856, The Stanley Gibbons Group plc is the world's leading rare stamp and prestige collectibles merchant with offices in the UK, US, Hong Kong and the Channel Islands. Holders of the Royal Warrant as philatelists since 1914 and AIM-listed in London the company serves pre-eminent collectors, investors, philatelists and numismatists all over the world.

Premium collectibles, particularly rare stamps and rare coins, have not only formed part of internationally-regarded collections, but often been amassed by sophisticated investors as a long-term 'buy and hold' through times of economic, social and political turbulence. 

Indices such as the GB30 Rarities Index (STGIGB30) and the GB250 Index (STGIGB25) listed on the Bloomberg Professional service and Thomson Reuters, and pricing information held by Stanley Gibbons since 1881 demonstrate steady, consistent growth in the retail price for quality, rare stamps. The Stanley Gibbons rare coin index, the GB200 (STGIRCIX), shows a similar trend for rare coins.