45 PRICEY STAMP

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OLD STAMP IS THE WORLD'S MOST EXPENSIVE OBJECT BY WEIGHT

It is hard to believe that a single, used stamp could be so ridiculously expensive, but at USD$8.5 million, this 1856 postage stamp is considered the world’s most expensive object by weight.

The world is full of valuable objects, from jewelry to rare artworks, but when it comes to value per gram, nothing even comes close to the British Guiana One-Cent Black on Magenta, a one-of-a-kind postage stamp that weighs just 40 milligrams but is valued at around USD$8.5 million. To put that into perspective, the average 0.2 carat diamond (which also weighs 40 milligrams) costs about USD$700, while the same amount of the drug LSD costs around USD$5,000. There just is not any other object that can compare to this ultra-rare stamp in terms of value per weight.

But why is the British Guiana One-Cent Black on Magenta stamp so expensive? Well, it is basically the “holy grail” of stamp collectors the world over. It is probably the most well-known and coveted postage stamp in existence simply because it is the only one of its kind. While most collectible stamps have multiple copies in circulation, this particular stamp is the only specimen.

Interestingly, the British Guiana One-Cent Black on Magenta is not even an official stamp. In 1856, a local news office in British Guiana printed a limited number of pieces of paper containing the image of a three-masted ship and the colony’s Latin motto (meaning, “We give and expect in return”) to temporarily replace a batch of postage stamps the postmaster considered counterfeit.

These replacement stamps were taken out of circulation in just a few weeks, after a new batch of official stamps was brought in, but 17 years later, in 1873, a 12-year-old boy found this one among his uncle’s letters and sold it to a local stamp collector. Fast forward 150 years, and that little piece of magenta paper is the world’s most valuable object by weight.

The British Guiana One-Cent Black on Magenta passed through the hands of nine owners until June of 2021, when it was bought by a company called Stanley Gibbons. Now, the world’s most valuable stamp has hundreds and, soon, maybe thousands of owners.

Stanley Gibbons decided to sell parts of the British Guiana One-Cent Black on Magenta stamp like shares of a company. The stamp was financially split (not really cut up!) into 80,000 pieces or shares that anyone could buy for £100 (USD$120) per piece. It sounds like a great investment, since the value of this extremely rare collectible is only expected to rise with time.