At least 2,880,000 Swiss francs or $2,300,000 (last known sale price 1996) €1.5–2 million (estimate in 2010)[1]
The Treskilling Yellow, or three schilling banco error of color (Swedish: Gul tre skilling banco, literally "yellow three skilling banco"), is a Swedishpostage stamp of which only one example is known to exist. This stamp was cancelled at Nya Kopparberget (now known as Kopparberg), about 150 kilometres (93mi) from Uppsala, on July 13, 1857.[2] It was last sold in 2010. The auction house valued the stamp between £1.29 million and £1.73 million before the sale. The winning bid was kept confidential.[3]
In 1855, Sweden issued its first postage stamps, in a set of five values depicting the Swedish coat of arms, with denominations ranging from three to 24 Swedish skillings. The three-skilling stamp was normally printed in a blue-green color, with the eight-skilling stamp being printed in yellowish orange. It is not known exactly what went wrong, but the most likely explanation is that a stereotype of the eight-skilling printing plate (which consisted of 100 stereotypes assembled into a 10 × 10 array) was damaged or broken, and it was mistakenly replaced with a three-skilling. The number of stamps printed in the wrong color is unknown, but so far only one example has been found.
Somehow, this error went entirely unnoticed at the time, and by 1858 the Swedish currency was changed. The skilling stamps were replaced by new stamps denominated in "öre". In 1886, a young collector named Georg Wilhelm Backman was going through covers in his grandmother's attic at the farm Väster Munga Gård north of Västerås, and came across one with a three-skilling stamp, for which the Stockholm stamp dealer Heinrich Lichtenstein was offering seven kronor apiece.
A Treskilling green
After it had changed hands several times, Sigmund Friedl sold it to Philipp von Ferrary in 1894, who had at that time the largest known stamp collection in the world, and paid the sum of 4,000 florins. As time passed, and no other "yellows" surfaced despite thorough searching, it became clear that the stamp was not only rare, but quite possibly the only surviving example.
When Ferrary's collection was auctioned in the 1920s, Swedish Baron Eric Leijonhufvud bought the yellow stamp, and then Claes A. Tamm bought it in 1926 for £1,500 sterling in order to complete his collection of Swedish stamps. In 1928, the stamp was sold to the lawyer Johan Ramberg for £2,000, and he kept it for nine years. In 1937, King Carol II of Romania purchased it from London auction house H. R. Harmer for £5,000, and in 1950 it went to Rene Berlingen for an unknown amount of money.
In the 1970s, the Swedish Postal Museum caused a controversy by declaring the stamp to be a forgery, but after examinations by two different commissions, it was agreed that this was a genuine stamp.[citation needed]
In 1984, the yellow stamp made headlines when it was sold by David Feldman for 977,500 Swiss francs. It was resold in 1990 for over $1,000,000. Then, in 1996 it sold again for 2,880,000 Swiss francs. Each successive sale was a world record price for a postage stamp.
On 22 May 2010, the yellow stamp was auctioned once again by David Feldman in Geneva, Switzerland. It sold "for at least the $2.3 million price [that] it set a record for in 1996".[1] The buyer reportedly was an "international consortium" and the seller was a financial firm auctioning the stamp to pay the former owner's debt.[4] The exact price and the identity of the buyer were not disclosed and all bidders reportedly were sworn to secrecy; however, the auctioneer stated that it was "still worth more than any other single stamp."[3][1] The buyer has subsequently been identified as Armand Rousso, "a colorful philatelic player ... known ... for a number of high-profile activities."[5]
In May 2013, the stamp was acquired in a private sale by Count Gustaf Douglas, a Swedish nobleman and politician.[6]
Jean-Claude Andre's lawsuit
In or before 2012, Jean-Claude Andre and his wife Jane Andre brought a lawsuit in the High Court of Justice, Chancery Division, London, against Clydesdale Bank PLC, claiming that he had stored a locked trunk at the bank in which there allegedly were six covers bearing a total of nine Treskilling Yellow stamps, along with other less valuable items. Andre claimed that he had left the trunk undisturbed from 1986 to 2004, but when he sought to retrieve it the lock had been removed and the covers and stamps taken. Philatelic dealer David Feldman testified that the covers would have been worth some 3.7 million pounds sterling. After a lengthy trial, the court issued a judgment dated 31 January – 1 February 2013, in which it rejected Andre's claim, finding him and his wife unreliable witnesses and their claim suffering from "sheer inherent implausibility".[7]
In popular culture
In the 1954 Agatha Christie mystery play Spider's Web, a similar "Swedish yellow" error stamp is the item used by a character as motivation for murder, pointing out that it's valued at over £14,000 (over £323,000 in 2024).
In the 1964 movie Charade, a stamp based on the Treskilling Yellow - an Fyraskilling Orange - is one of three rare stamps used by a main character to hide a large amount of money in plain sight.
In episode 2 "Return to Sender" of season 6 of White Collar, Neal Caffrey has to steal the Treskilling Yellow as part of a heist planned by an exclusive group of thieves, The Pink Panthers. The stamp is shown in high detail as Caffrey forges a copy.
In episode 16 "Dial M For Merger" of Total Drama Action, Harold mentions the stamp as something he wants deeply, as it is the "rarest stamp".
In A.J. Sherwoods book How to steal a Thief, the second book of the Unholy Trifecta Series, Ivan Azarov is contracted to steal the Treskilling yellow stamp.
Stamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps and related objects. It is an area of philately, which is the study of stamps. It has been one of the world's most popular hobbies since the late nineteenth century with the rapid growth of the postal service, as a stream of new stamps was produced by countries that sought to advertise their distinctiveness through their stamps.
The Inverted Jenny is a 24 cent United States postage stamp first issued on May 10, 1918, in which the image of the Curtiss JN-4 airplane in the center of the design is printed upside-down; it is one of the most famous errors in American philately. Only one pane of 100 of the invert stamps was ever found, making this error one of the most prized in philately.
Philip Ferrari de La Renotière was a noted French-born stamp collector, assembling probably the most complete worldwide collection that ever existed, or is considered likely to exist. Among his extremely rare stamps were the unique Treskilling Yellow of Sweden and the 1856 one-cent "Black on Magenta" of British Guiana.
This is a list of philatelic topics.
The 2¢ Large Queen on laid paper is the rarest postage stamp of Canada. Printed in 1868, it was not discovered until 1925, and so far only three have been found, all used. Many more could exist as at least one sheet must have been printed, and possibly many sheets; however, they may all have been destroyed, or lie unrecognised in stamp collections or on cover.
A privately run packet service for mail existed in British Guiana in 1796, and continued for a number of years. Postage stamps of Britain were used in those days at Georgetown (Demerara) and Berbice. The first adhesive stamps produced by British Guiana were issued in 1850.
The British Guiana 1c magenta is regarded by many philatelists as the world's most famous rare stamp. It was issued in limited numbers in British Guiana in 1856, and only one specimen is now known to exist. It is the only major postage stamp ever issued in the United Kingdom or British Commonwealth that is not represented in Britain's Royal Philatelic Collection.
The Mauritius "Post Office" stamps were issued by the British Colony Mauritius in September 1847, in two denominations: an orange-red one penny (1d) and a deep blue two pence (2d). Their name comes from the wording on the stamps reading "Post Office", which was soon changed in the next issue to "Post Paid". They are among the rarest postage stamps in the world.
The Inverted Head Four Annas of India is a postage stamp prized by collectors. The 1854 first issues of India included a Four Annas value in red and blue. It was one of the world's first multicolored stamps; the Basel Dove preceded it by nine years. However, an invert error occurred during production, showing the head "upside down."
David Feldman MA. BBS, RDP(I).FRPSL is a professional philatelist, auctioneer, art specialist and author. He held his first stamp auction in 1967. Feldman is Honorary Chairman of David Feldman SA, a Geneva-based auction company, through which he attained record prices for some of the world's most famous postage stamps. In 1993, Feldman auctioned the "Bordeaux Cover", which comprised the 1847 1d Orange-red and the 2d Deep Blue Mauritius "Post Office" stamps, which brought 6,175,000 Swiss francs including all commissions, at that time the highest price ever paid for any philatelic item. He also sold the unique 1855 Sweden Treskilling Yellow stamp at auction in 1996, which at the time was the highest price ever paid for a single stamp, for which he was pictured in the Guinness Book of Records. That record was eclipsed in 2014 by the sale of the British Guiana 1c magenta.
The Baden 9 Kreuzer Error is a postage stamp error produced by the historical German state of Baden in 1851.
Marc Armand Rousso is a French businessman, and the founder of Accoona.com, a business-to-business search engine, and X3D Technology. He is the father of Vanessa Rousso, professional poker player and Big Brother contestant.
Arthur Hind (1856–1933), of Utica, New York, was a British-born American textile industrialist and philatelist.
Alfred H. Caspary (1877–1955), of New York City, was a philatelist responsible for assembling one of the finest collections of United States postage stamps. He also served in a number of philatelic positions in the United States and in England.
Maurice Jean Marie Burrus was an Alsatian tobacco magnate, politician and philatelist. Originally from Alsace but residing in Switzerland, he was a deputy in the French parliament during the 1930s. His stamp collection was considered one of the greatest ever assembled and included some of the world's rarest stamps.
The Buenos Aires 1859 1p "In Ps" tête-bêche pair, also known as the “In Peso” tête-bêche Pair, is the only known specimen of an inverted error on Barquitos postage stamp issued by the sovereign state of Buenos Aires.
Lieut. Colonel George S. F. Napier was a British Army officer of the 52nd Oxfordshire Light Infantry.
The Alexandria "Blue Boy" is a rare Postmasters' Provisionals stamp produced in Alexandria, Virginia in 1847. There are seven known examples of Alexandria provisionals, however, the Blue Boy is the only specimen printed on blue paper. The other six are printed on buff paper. The Blue Boy remains affixed to its original envelope, and sold for $1.18 million in 2019, which is among the highest known prices paid for a philatelic item.
Åhman, Sven (1976). The Yellow Three Skilling Banco. Malmö: R.M. Skogs Förlags AB.
Bjäringer, Tomas with Gustaf Douglas (2005). Sweden Number One: the 3 Skilling Banco. Limassol: James Bendon. ISBN9963579930.
Feldman, David (1996). The Treskilling Yellow; The Unique Error of Color: The World's Most Valuable Stamp. Geneva: David Feldman SA.
Fimmerstad, Lars (2004). The Treskilling Yellow: The Most Valuable Thing in the World. Stockholm: Argumentor AB.
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