The One-Cent Magenta: Inside the Quest to Own the Most Valuable Stamp in the World

by James Barron

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Book cover for The One-Cent Magenta

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When it was issued in 1856, it cost a penny. In 2014, this tiny square of faded red paper sold at Sotheby's for nearly $9.5 million, the largest amount ever paid for a postage stamp at auction. Through the stories of the eccentric characters who have bought, owned, and sold the one-cent magenta in the years in between, James Barron delivers a fascinating tale of global history and immense wealth, and of the human desire to collect. One-cent magentas were provisional stamps, printed quickly in what was then British Guiana when a shipment of official stamps from London did...Read more
  • ISBN13 9781616207991
  • Publish Date 1 March 2018 (first published 7 March 2017)
  • Publish Status Cancelled
  • Publish Country US
  • Imprint Algonquin Books (division of Workman)
  • Format Paperback
  • Pages 304
  • Language English