Treskilling Yellow

The Tre- skilling banco misprint is one of the rarest and most expensive stamps in the world. The stamp was issued on 1 July 1855 in Sweden. A single specimen is still preserved.

The stamp was part of the first series of stamps of Sweden from the year 1855. This consisted of five values ​​of 3, 4, 6, 8 and 24 Skilling Banco. This image series shows the Swedish national coat of arms, which is surrounded by the inscription Frimärke, the country name and the value specified. The design was executed by PA Sparre. The postage stamps were produced by letterpress printing. Now it came, however, to the fact that an unknown number of 3- Skilling values ​​were printed in the color of the 8- skilling value. They were therefore yellow-orange instead of green. However, this misprint remained unnoticed.

In 1886 the young collector Georg Wilhelm Baeckman discovered a copy of the misprint in the attic of his grandmother. He sold the stamp 7 crowns at the stamp dealer Heinrich Lichtenstein. After several other owners, it eventually fell into the hands of the Vienna stamp dealer Sigmund Friedl. This Tre Skilling Banco sold for 4000 guilders in 1894, the famous collector Philipp von Ferrary. As part of the resolution of Ferrarys collection by the French government after the First World War, the Tre Skilling Banco was purchased on a Ferrary auction from the Baron Eric Leijonhufyud. He sold his stamp a short time later for £ 1500 to the Swedish philatelist Claes A. Tamm. 1937 Tre Skilling Banco found the in King Charles II of Romania for £ 5,000 by London auction house HR Harmer a new owner. In 1950, she earned René Berlingin for an unknown sum.

In 1984, the Swedish misprint again changed its owner. David Feldman was allowed to call him for 977 500 Swiss francs his own. In 1996 he gave a sum of 2.5 million Swiss francs ( 1.6 million euros ) at auction in Geneva. On 22 May 2010, the brand was sold again at auction house David Feldman in Geneva. Buyers as well as purchase price were not disclosed. In May 2013, the Swedish businessman Gustaf Douglas earned a misprint for an undisclosed price.