New York to auction world\\\'s most famous stamp

NEW YORK, Feb 15 (AFP): The world's most famous postage stamp, a tiny piece of British colonial memorabilia from 19th century South America, is going under the hammer in New York for $10 to $20 million.
It was made in 1856 in Guyana and Sotheby's will sell the magenta stamp, which bares the postmater's initials, on June 17.
Last bought in 1980 by convicted murderer and American multi-millionaire, John du Pont, it has not been seen in public since going on display at a stamp exhibition in Chicago in 1986.
Since 1922 it has three times broken the record for the price of a single stamp sold at auction and Sotheby's estimated value puts it way ahead of the last known record of $2.5 million.
"The estimate is very realistic for the rarity we're dealing with," David Redden, Sotheby's director of special projects, told AFP, adding "this stamp has extraordinary fame and charisma."
The oldest surviving stamp in the world dates back to 1840 but the British Guiana One Cent Magenta is the most celebrated and in remarkable condition given it is more than 150 years old.
Octagonal, printed in black ink and measuring one by 1.25 inches (2.54 by 3.18 centimeters), it is hinged to a paper backing.
Redden said the stamp was the sole-surviving example of a one-cent magenta, missing even from the British royal family's philatelic collection.
Shining star of collector's world -
It is "the largest shining star in the very distance in the great universe of collecting," Redden said.
Colonial Guyana depended on supplies of stamps from England, but when a shipment was delayed in 1856 the postmaster commissioned a contingency supply.
The printers of the local Royal Gazette newspaper quickly ran off one-cent and four-cent magentas, and a four-cent blue.
The only surviving example of the one-cent was rediscovered in 1873 by Vernon Vaughan, a 12-year-old Scottish boy living with his family in British Guyana.
He found it among some family papers and added the stamp to his album. Vaughan then sold it to another collector for a few shillings and the stamp made its way to Britain in 1878.
It was bought by French Count Philippe la Renotiere von Ferrary, perhaps the greatest stamp collector in history, and later donated to a museum in Berlin.