Maybe luck doesn’t come into it, but most of us in the philatelic world are quite envious of the man pictured below. Why?
Possibly some of our readers will recognise the man above as being the owner of an item that has been/still is considered to be the holy grail for stamp collectors.
He is American shoe designer and entrepreneur Stuart Weitzman, who has collected stamps since childhood and in 2014 paid a world record $9.5 million for the 1856 British Guiana 1c magenta stamp pictured below.
Weitzman bought the “world’s most famous stamp” anonymously at a Sotheby’s auction in New York on 17th June 2014, for $9,480,000, including buyer’s premium – the highest price ever paid for a postage stamp.
Weitzman has since identified himself as the purchaser and has lent the stamp to the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in the United States for exhibition until November 2017. Additionally, as a special event, the stamp will be on show at the World Stamp Show–NY 2016. The special showing will take place from May 28 until June 3, 2016, at the exhibition venue at the Javits Center in New York City. Admission is free throughout all eight days of the show.
In June 2015, Weitzman also identified himself as the current owner of the unique plate block of four 1918 U.S. 24-cent Inverted Jennies, widely regarded as the world’s most celebrated philatelic printing error.
A restored, hundred-year-old Curtiss JN-4H biplane, will also be on display at the New York World Stamp Show.
