Two sheets of Rhodesian stamps (the second kind also used in Nyasaland) with colour errors from the famous Pierron collection, in excellent condition, have come up for sale at Spink - each sheet estimated at £18,000-22,000.
Rhodesian stamps don't necessarily need to have errors in order to be valuable, as this sale shows. But it always makes a huge difference for philatelists.
The first sheet of 60 1/3d stamps known as Pierron RH762MCa depicts a landscape, but columns four and five are completely missing the ochre colour to help the land contrast with the blue of the water and sky. Column six is significantly affected, and column is slightly.
 Sheet 091 |
The sheet, marked 091, is listed as the only sheet in existence which shows this rare error.
The other sheet contains 60 stamps known as Pierron RH64MCa, was created in 1960 in honour of the Kariba Hydro-Electric Scheme which it shows. The third and fifth column are almost entirely missing a red-orange background colour acknowledging the African sunshine, and the fourth column is missing it altogether.
 Sheet 20111 |
This sheet, 20111, is listed at the only sheet showing this error to still be intact, of three ever known to exist. Both sheets are listed at £18,000-22,000.
To the layman, invert errors on stamps, such as the Inverted Jenny, are the most famous, but philatelists will know that a stamp with a colour error, the Treskilling Yellow, is arguably the most valuable in existence.
