Anyone interested in rare and valuable stamps should pay attention to the Chinese market.
You can’t ignore China in the 21st century.
That’s true in philately as it is in every area of life.
The opening up of the Chinese economy, particularly after the 2007 - 8 financial crisis, unleashed some incredible spending power.
And China’s relative strength meant patriotic buyers wanted to bring their heritage home.
That meant big sales for artifacts and antiquities that many Chinese people considered looted.
And that heritage included rare Chinese postage stamps that had been collected outside the country.
These "small dragons" are among the earliest Chinese stamps.
Chinese history is long and complex; Chinese postal history too.
Modern postage stamps were pioneered in the UK about a century before the revolution and civil war that established the People’s Republic of China.
Before the relative stability that introduced to China, the country endured a painful transition from dynastic imperial rule through short-lived republics and separatist, warlord, and occupation regimes.
That story is told in China’s stamps.
Here are 10 reasons to explore it.
1 - China’s postal history is very old
Marco Polo traveled to China in the 13th century. There, under Mongol rule, he found a postal system called Yam.
Government had its own postal system, and private letters could be sent through a highly developed system of messengers and postal stages.
The Red Revenue stamps are a key early Chinese issue.
2 - The first modern Chinese postal stamps were overseen by an Englishman
The role of imperial powers like the UK is Key to understanding China’s “century of humiliation”.
“Treaty Ports”, including some of China’s greatest cities, were virtually foreign territory.
In Shanghai, an Englishman (who today would probably be convicted of sex trafficking for his behaviour in China) called Robert Hart was put in charge of customs.
Under his watch a mail service was set up for consular mail, and opened to the general public after May 1878.
The Large Dragon stamps were its payment system, carrying the name of the country in western as well as Chinese script.
3 - China’s first national stamps were printed in Japan
By 1897 the customs post system set up by Hart had become a national postal system, The Imperial Chinese Post.
Still its mechanisms were overseas.
The first Imperial Post stamps were printed in Japan and carried their value in dollars and cents.
They show a dragon, a carp, and a goose, and they're very beautiful and highly collectible.
The second issue was printed in London.
Happy Birthday to the Dowager Empress on the first Chinese commemorative.
4 - The first Chinese commemorative were not for a head of state
In 1897, the Chinese postal authorities issued their first commemorative set of stamps.
They weren't for the Emperor, but for the woman who was probably the power behind the throne Empress Dowager Cixi.
She was involved in court politics from her teenage years, and from 1861 onwards was the dominant figure in the Qing Dynasty.
So, she gets the honour of the first commemoratives, not the Guangxu Emperor who actually held the throne.
This highly desirable issue has many versions, some of which were especially printed to be gifted to government officials and foreign visitors.
5 - The Last Emperor of China also appears on Japanese state stamps
The Last Emperor of China is on these stamps from the Japanese Manchurian state of Manchukuo from 1934.
China’s early 20th century is violent, often chaotic, and extremely tragic.
PuYi was on the last Chinese Imperial stamps, but those weren’t the last Chinese stamps he appeared on.
As the Japanese empire carried out its genocidal assault on China in the 1930s they set up puppet states.
PuYi was a useful ruler for one of them, Manchukuo, in north-east China.
The state only lasted until the end of World War II, and its stamps are a collectible rarity, though they represent a period most Chinese people have no wish to celebrate.
6 - The most valuable Chinese stamp is a diplomatic no no
If you follow western news about China at the moment you’ll hear a lot about Taiwan.
Taiwan, or the Republic of China as it calls itself, is an island off mainland China that has been independent since the end of the Chinese Civil War and the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
The KMT nationalists, who lost the civil war to Mao’s communists, fled to Taiwan, taking what they regarded as the legitimate government.
In the eyes of the PRC, Taiwan is still part of One China, of which they are the rightful government.
And in the eyes of the Republic of China vice versa. Though their claims to sovereignty over all of China are more realistically described as (thus far undeclared) independence for the island these days.
How this contradiction is resolved, and how the United States' so-called strategic ambiguity on the issue plays out, could have massive effects.
Taiwan is a touchy issue in China.
So, when in 1968, at the height of the Cultural Revolution a stamp called the Whole Country is Red featured a map that showed Taiwan in white - and therefore not part of One China - it was immediately withdrawn.
This period of Chinese stamps is highly collectible, and this is its greatest treasure.
The numbers that exist are unknown, but the highest price paid was $2 million in 2015, with other examples raising hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Cultural Revolution period is still controversial in China today and its stamps are highly sought after by collectors.
7 - China’s postal history has three eras
Chinese rare stamp collectors have so much choice.
Among the first to consider is which China would you like to focus on.
The three periods of Chinese philately reflect three very different periods of governance.
The first era is called Imperial China, and it covers the introduction of modern adhesive stamps and the postal systems of the final emperors of Qing Dynasty China.
That ends in 1912 with revolution. A republic was founded, but instability means the period from 1912 to 1949 means many other states issued stamps.
Finally, the People's Republic of China was inaugurated in 1949.
The first stamp issue of the PRC took place on October 8, 1949, with four stamps showing a lantern and the Gate of Heavenly Peace and in honour of the 1st session of the Chinese People's Consultative Political Conference.
8 - Chinese stamp issues include many issuing authorities that only lasted for months
During the Civil War (which might be referred to under the banner of the Chinese People’s Revolutionary War Period by Chinese collectors or catalogues) life had to continue.
That included issuing stamps.
As the communist forces moved towards victory, they set up local governments in what they called the Liberated Areas.
Many of these issued stamps for periods of just a few months.
The stamps themselves are very collectible, though their simplicity often reflects a country destroyed by invasion and war.
Liberated Area stamps were issued and used in the north west of China until the end of 1950.
9 - China once issued a $5 million stamp
$5 million stamps are not the sign of a healthy economy.
At the end of World War II the Japanese had been defeated but China was still at war.
And the economy was in ruins.
As the Chinese republic neared its end inflation ran out of control.
Stamps were swiftly overprinted with new values.
A gold-standard currency revaluation failed to stabilize affairs and a $5,000,000 stamp was issued in 1948 and again in 1949.
At some points, stamps were simply printed with no values on them in order to allow on-the-fly pricing.
That top value stamp is attractive to collectors and will go for several hundred pounds in good nick today.
10 - One man straddles China’s philatelic eras and territorial divides
Dr Sun Yat Sen has appeal to communists and nationalists in China and Taiwan.
If you were to think of a Chinese individual to focus your collection on then Mao Tse Tung is probably the first example that springs to mind.
But you will have a broader collection if you instead pick Sun Yat Sen.
This revolutionary doctor is the most influential figure of the 1912 movement that ended imperial rule.
He was president of China for a short period, but never really succeeded in bringing liberal democracy to his homeland.
In Taiwan, where the KMT (Kuomintang) party he led fled at the end of the Civil War he is called the “Father of the Nation”.
In the PRC, his revolutionary zeal in helping to end empire is celebrated as the “Forerunner of Revolution”.
And so he is a unique modern Chinese political figure, featured on stamps from Taipei and Beijing, and in issues made under the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China.
There are at least 12 commemorative issues of Sun Yat Sen stamps running from 1931 to 2016.
So, if you’re looking for a single figure to start your collection with you should take a look at Dr Sen.
It’s a collection you can start without breaking the bank too.
Rare Chinese stamp market could be about to grow
Our stamp specialist Mike Hall has followed the Chinese stamp market closely.
Its growth has been explosive.
Mike was recording price rises of 10% a month at some stages.
And comparison prices from 2000 to the early 2020s can feature growth in thousands of percentage points.
And that’s after a correction.
The market is volatile and well worth your study.
As is the detailed history of Chinese philately.
There’s so much to learn: Chinese characters and currency for starters; a huge number of states, statelets and territories; overprints, foreign issues, the red revenue series, provisional neutrality post offices…
It’s a lifetime study.
Buy rare Chinese stamps here now
You can shop for some wonderful Chinese stamp rarities here.
