- Title: SWITZERLAND: POSTAGE STAMP TRESKILLING YELLOW IS SOLD AT WORLD RECORD PRICE
- Date: 8th November 1996
- Summary: ZURICH AND GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (OCTOBER 28, 1996/ RECENT)(RTV ) GENEVA (RECENT) 1. CLOSE UP OF THE "TRESKILLING YELLOW" STAMP 0.06 ZURICH (NOVEMBER 8, 1996) 2. SV EXT SWISS HOTEL WHERE AUCTION IS BEING HELD 0.11 3. SV/LV/CU WOMAN TAKING OUT STAMP FROM GLASS MONITOR AND HOLDS IT UP TO CAMERAS (5 SHOTS) 0.50 4. SV MAN SPEAKING ON TELEPHONE 0.55 5. SV AUCTION IN PROGRESS, STAMP SELLS FOR 2 500 000 (5 SHOTS) 1.19 6. SV AGENT FOR THE BUYER HANS LERNESTAL SAYING I HAD A HIGHER BID AND I COULD HAVE GONE HIGHER, SO I THINK IT'S A BARGAIN (ENGLISH)/ LERNESTAL WALKING AWAY (2 SHOTS) 1.39 7. SCU AUCTIONEER DAVID FELDMAN SAYING HE IS ASTOUNDED BY THE PRICE, I NEVER EXPECTED TO GET SO MUCH (ENGLISH) 2.14 GENEVA (RECENT) 8. SV FELDMAN OPENING STRONG VAULT DOORS 2.21 9. SV/CU FELDMAN TAKING AND HOLDING TRESKILLING YELLOW/ MORE CLOSE UP (2 SHOTS) 2.29 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 23rd November 1996 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: GENEVA AND ZURICH, SWITZERLAND
- City:
- Country: Switzerland
- Reuters ID: LVAD95B7024RB4GFFFYM7JZ9GXKJ
- Story Text: INTRO: The world's most valuable single postage stamp, rescued by a Swedish schoolboy in 1885 from his grandmother's rubbish bin, has been sold at a world record price at an auction in Zurich.
The world's most valuable single postage stamp, a flimsy Swedish issue from 1857, was sold at a public auction on Friday for 2.87 million Swiss francs (2.26 million U.S. dollars), a world record.
The stamp, known to collectors around the globe as the "Treskilling Yellow", had an estimated price of up to 1,2 million United States (U.S.) dollars. It was purchased for an unnamed private client by a stamp dealer based in Stockholm.
The dealer, Hans Lernestal, told reporters the stamp was bought for a client but declined to give his name.
He also said he had been prepared to pay even more and concluded that the purchase was "a bargain".
Bidding started at 900,000 Swiss francs (708,661 U.S.-dollars) and was over within two minutes when Lernestal took his offer to 2,5 million Swiss francs -- to which 15 per cent commission is added to make up the final sum to be paid.
David Feldman, Irish director of his own Geneva-based auctioneers company who made the sale said the price was incredible.
The stamp was sold again on Friday because the last buyer, a Swedish enthusiast, never concluded payment and has offered it up to cover his remaining debt and other charges, according to the auction house.
The "Treskilling" or three-shilling, was the first stamp issued by Sweden in 1855, 15 years after Britain issued the first postage stamps in 1840.
Swedish schoolboy Georg Backman found the stamp in a drawer at his grandmother's house in 1885 during a winter holiday there. He sold it to a Stockholm dealer for just seven Swedish kronor, a handful of dollars at the time.
It is the only yellow version of an 1855 three-shilling issue.
All others that have survived are green, and for many years -- until scientific tests in the 1970s -- this one was believed to be a fake.
The flimsy, orange-yellow stamp is already hailed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most valuable object of any type by weight, volume and density since it was last sold for just over 1.2 million U.S. dollars in 1990.
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