British Guiana stamp sold for record $9.5 million

New York: Setting a new world record, a British Guiana one-cent black on magenta stamp, one of the world`s first postage stamps, has fetched $9.5 million at Sotheby`s auction here, the organisers said Wednesday.

The previous auction record for a single stamp was set in 1996 by ‘Treskilling Yellow’ - a Swedish stamp that is a misprint of an 1855 shilling stamp in the wrong colour. It was sold for $2.2 million. "This is a truly great moment for the world of stamp collecting," David Redden, Sotheby`s vice chairman, said in a statement. "That price will be hard to beat, and likely won`t be exceeded unless the `British Guiana` comes up for sale again in the future," he added. This rare stamp from 1856 was rediscovered by a 12-year-old Scottish boy who was living in the British Guiana (now Guyana) in 1873. Since then, it has passed through the hands of several stamp collectors across the world.