These stamps are the legends of the hobby By Michael Baadke The
real celebrities of the stamp hobby have always been the postage
stamps themselves, from the very first issue of 1840 to the
greatest rarities of all time. |Figure 1. The 1840 Penny Black
from Great Britain.| |Figure 2. Unused copies of the rare
1-penny orange and 2d blue Mauritius Post Office definitive
stamps issued in 1847.| |Figure 3. The Three Skilling Yellow, a
rare color error of the first stamp from Sweden.| |Figure 4. The
1856 Penny Magenta of British Guiana.| |Figure 5. The Inverted
Jenny.| While some stamps are so common they seem to turn up in
every collection and mixture, others are much harder to find.
These rarities have achieved a reputation that places them
foremost among the true gems of philately. Some of the shining
stars of the stamp world are incredibly rare, and there are
instances where only one known example of a given stamp has ever
been verified. Other famous stamps are a little more plentiful
but still draw the attenti