India 1854 4 annas 'Head inverted' error sells for €185,000

Twenty-seven confirmed examples exist of this most famous stamp of India.  This one illustrated is ex-Dawson, and although cut-to-shape, it's large margins and otherwise fault-free appearance place it among the better of the survivors.  Stanley Gibbons list it as SG 18a, and price the stamp from £50,000 to £200,000 (or €57,000 to €228,000).  The considerable variance in price quoted by Stanley Gibbons reflects the difference between a cut-to-shape example and the finest stamp known.

At Auktionshaus Christoph Gärtner's auction held over 29 August to 2 September, this stamp was knocked down for  €185,000 (£162,000) against an estimate of €150,000 (£131,000).  With the 19% buyer's commission added, the total cost to the purchaser will be in excess of €220,000 or £192,000.

The demand for iconic rare stamps appears undiminished.  This stamp was the British Empire standout among many fine stamps in the Christoph Gärtner Rarities sale.

India Birds of Prey error sells for £11,500

The heading says it all really. An example of the stamp pictured, India SG 1525a, error of value, sold for £11,500 at Stanley Gibbons' 15 June 2011 sale in London.

The stamp is catalogued by Stanley Gibbons at a mere £1,000. A quite spectacular realisation for a modern error.

The example illustrated here was sold by Grosvenor's at auction for £2,100 in December 2009.

In examples of the 1992 India Year Pack of commemorative stamps, the lowest value of the Birds of Prey set was discovered to be a 1 r. value, instead of 2 r. as generally issued. The 1 r. value also included the species description for the 6 r. value from the same set.

It appears that it was intended that the lowest value in the set was to be 1 r., but when the inscription error was discovered after the stamps were printed, it was decided to reprint with a corrected inscription and increased value of 2 r. In the meantime, some of the 1 r. value errors had already been placed in a number of 1992 Year Packs.

By 1998, three of the errors had been discovered in Year Packs. It appears that all other 1 r. stamps were destroyed by the Indian Post Office.