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The £1.4 million Swedish record breaker |
 At Christmas 1885 14-year-old Swedish schoolboy Georg Wilhelm Backman visited his grandmother and, due to his passion for stamp collecting, asked her of she had any old letters with stamps on. Several of the stamps he steamed off envelopes were the 3 (Tre) skilling banco denomination for the local letter rate. These stamps were normally green in colour but one that Georg found was yellow. He later recalled that he damaged some of the peforation when removing the stamp and later ironed it out. In Stockholm the schoolboy, who had no idea of its rarity or value, sold the stamp in a batch to the dealer Heinrich Lichtenstein for seven kronor.
Some time later Backman was reading the Swedish philatelic publication Svenska Dagbladet which told of an exhibition, being organised by Lichtenstein, which featured the yellow Tre Skilling Banco and described it as: ‘The pearl of the collection’. Although annoyed by the fact that he clearly had been taken advantage of Backman’s mother told him to be happy with what he had got for the stamps. Later Backman confirmed that the stamp originally came from a letter sent by his brother, a travelling botanist in his spare time, and that this could explain the ‘KNOPP’ cancellation which indicated the letter had been posted at Nya Kopparberget on July 13, 1857.
No other examples
After an exhaustive eight year search by Lichtenstein no other examples of this error of colour were found. It’s believed that the error of colour occurred when a 3 skilling cliché was mistakenly inserted into the form of the 8sk orange yellow of 1857. A few sheets are thought to have been printed but because the skilling banco stamps made way for a new decimal currency in July 1858 their life was short. No other example of the wrong colour has emerged in the near 150 years since the original, and seems very unlikely to do so at this late stage.
Ownership of the stamp has been interesting including, unsurprisingly, the world famous collector Count Ferrary and also King Carol II of Romania (who sold it in 1950). In 1978 it was sold through Edgar Mohrmann for £270,000; then the Swiss auction house Feldman sold it in 1984 for £314,309 – the same auctioneer sold it to Sven-Olof Karlsson in 1990 for £800,633 (then a world record for a stamp off cover). However, Karlsson failed to complete the purchase and so the item was again sold by Feldman (for the third time) on November 8, 1996. The auction was solely for the stamp and a beautiful hard-backed catalogue told the full story of its provenance and history. In the event it sold for a world record £1,400,000 to a Scandinavian group. This record stands to this day and the Tre Skilling Banco yellow is widely regarded as the most valuable man-made object on earth in relation to size, weight and composition.
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Tales by Mail - Book 1, by Karen Cartier
 Tales by Mail is for children of all ages, perhaps up through 60 or so. It brings together stories literally from around the world ... from Botswana to Denmark, from New Zealand to the Faroes, from Saar to Israel.
The stories are short, each with a message, and each illustrated by a stamp issued by the country of the story's origin. Each who reads this book no doubt will develop a different favorite story, which is to be expected. Formatted simply, each story is preceded by a full-color illustration of the commemorative stamp that no only is impressive in its own right but also serves through its design to set the stage for the story that follows.
For those who wonder of the relationship between a stamp design and what is "behind" the design, this book serves as an excellent example.
Teddy Bears Celebrate 100th Anniversary
 Teddy bears, enormously popular symbols of human caring and loving, are being honored by the U.S. Postal Service with the issuance of the Teddy Bears commemorative stamps. The 2002 issuance of the stamps coincides with the 100th anniversary of teddy bears.
The Teddy Bears pane of 20 self-adhesive stamps depicts four lovable, cuddly teddy bears. Photos of the bears appear in the header; details of the photos appear on the stamps. The four stamp designs are repeated five times each on the pane. All four teddy bears were manufactured in the United States and are now owned by private collectors. The Ideal bear dates to circa 1905, the Bruin bear from circa 1907 and the Gund bear from circa 1948. The unlabeled "stick" bear dates from the 1920s. Mass- produced stick bears were characterized by their short arms, thin legs and upright posture. The Ideal bear, the Bruin bear and the stick bear belong to Paul and Rosemary Volpp of Carson City, Nev. The Gund bear belongs to Helen Sieverling of Pasadena, Calif.
The idea of the teddy bear was born in 1902 when President Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot a captive bear during a hunting trip. Washington Post cartoonist Clifford Berryman depicted the incident on the front page of the newspaper, and soon toymakers began to manufacture the "teddy" bears associated with the president's name. People in all walks of life love teddy bears, and enthusiasts—known in the teddy bear world as arctophiles—pay top dollar for the collectibles.
Today there are teddy bear magazines, clubs, collector shows and programs, both educational and medical, that feature these little stuffed companions. Teddy bears have had endless books, songs and poem written about them. Widely viewed as symbols of security and comfort, teddy bears are often used by police officers and hospital staff to calm the young and old alike in traumatic situations
Second Set Of Penguin Stamps
 British Antarctic Territory has issued its second set of penguin stamps on a miniature sheet and in a booklet from the Port Lockroy Post Office.
The 12 airmail postcard values feature photographs of Chinstrap, Emperor, Adelie, Gentoo and Macaroni penguins, including juveniles.
All the photographs were taken by members of the British Antarctic Survey.
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