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 (postage stamp), 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), Red Mercury – newspaper stamp

Belgium

* Epaulettes (stamp), Leopold with the Epaulettes (1849) * Inverted Dendermonde (1920)

Bermuda

* Perot provisional

Brazil

* Bull's Eye (postage stamp), Bull's Eye * Goat's Eye

Canada

* Canada Scott 3 12 Penny Black, Canada 12d black * Canada 2c Large Queen on laid paper – Rarest Canadian stamp * Bluenose (postage stamp), Bluenose * St. Lawrence Seaway invert *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 * Big Dragon stamp – 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

* Hong Kong Jubilee 1891 – First overprinted commemorative stamp in the world (:commons:File:UK-Hong-Kong-Stamp-1891-Overprint 50-Year-Jubilee.jpg, Commons Image) * George VI - Queen Elizabeth Silver Jubilee 1948

Finland

* Finland Zeppelin "1830" * Finland 20k black stamped envelope – Most valuable postal stationery

France

* Ceres series (France), Ceres – France's first stamp * One franc vermilion * Black twenty centimes

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 * Saxony 1/2g on light blue paper error * 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) – :File:Large Hermes 40L Solferino (1871).jpg, image

Honduras

* – Black airmail overprint (two currently known)

India

* Scinde Dawk – First stamps in Asia * Inverted Head 4 Annas, Inverted Head Four Annas * Indian 10 Rupee Mahatma Gandhi postage stamp – Mahatma Gandhi 10 rupees stamp overprinted "SERVICE" * Datia State#Postal/Philatelic Information, Duttia – 2 annas with red seal (1894?), a possibly unique Postage stamps and postal history of the Indian states#The feudatory states, Indian Feudatory State stamp

Ireland

* 1935 Irish 2d coil stamp

Italy

* Postage stamps and postal history of Tuscany#Arms of Savoy, Tuscany 3-lira ocher * Tuscany 4-crazie Lion inverted tablet – Unique error * Italy General Balbo triptych * 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

* Japan 500m Dragon invert

Libya

* "Khadafi" 1986 – Ordinary set of 12 stamps; error in design resulted in its withdraw from circulation hours after being issued on 1 January 1986 * "Khadafi Prize" 1994 – 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 * Malta Saint Paul 10s black, 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

* Wilhelmina 5 cent orange (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 * 7½ cent dark violet, syncopated type D (1927) – Three-hole, four-sided interrupted perforation

New Zealand

* 1906 Christchurch Exhibition 1d Claret Colour – Miscoloured * 1996 Teddy Bear Health Stamp – Withdrawn because it showed an incorrect use of a car child restraint, though a number were still sold * 2006 Maori Performing Arts (stamps), Maori Performing Arts stamps – Sets of five stamps printed but destroyed before release, after causing public offense (with a very small number sold by mistake)glenstephens.com
/ref> * 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

* (Tiflis unique) (1857) – One of the rarest Russian stamps, issued in Tiflis, Georgia (country), Georgia; only three specimens known * First stamp of the Russian Empire (1857) * (1908) – A very rare Russian stamp; 15–20 specimens may exist

RSFSR

* (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 * R.S.F.S.R. Definitives tête-bêche block (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

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

South Africa

* Cape 4d black Triangle * Cape 4d red error of color

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#Postage stamp, 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, HMS ''Glasgow'' error

Gibraltar

* Gibraltar 10c missing-value error

United States

* St. Louis Bears * Alexandria "Blue Boy" Postmaster's Provisional – Unique, entire * New York Postmaster's Provisional * Z Grill, 1c Z grill – Rarest US stamp * Western Cattle in Storm, 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 * 1858, 120c. blue, tête-bêche vertical pair – Unique * 1858, 180c Sol de Mayo red error of color – Unique * 1858, 180c. green, in mixed franking with 1860 thick figures 60 c. brown lilac – 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

*Stamps and postal history of the Confederate States, 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)

* Black Swan (stamp), Black Swan * Inverted Swan

References

External links

''Stamp Magazine'' online
World's rarest stamps (archived 9 August 2010) {{Postal system Lists of postage stamps, *