World's Most Expensive British Guiana Postage Stamp to Be Auctioned in New York

For the legendary postage stamp "British Guiana", which will be auctioned in New York on June 17, 2014, the auction house Sotheby's intends to receive up to $ 20 million. An octagonal one-cent stamp was issued in British Guiana (now Guyana) in 1856. The copy has the handwritten signature of the postmaster E. White. The stamp with an interesting and intricate history, preserved in a single copy, is highly valued by collectors.

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1. "British Guiana" was discovered in 1873 by a 12-year-old Scottish schoolboy in the Guyanese town of Demerara among his uncle's letters. Since the stamp was not mentioned in his catalog of postage stamps, he sold it a few weeks later to a collector friend, H.R. McKinnon for a few shillings (which is about $0.50 to $2.50 these days). From him, five years later, she passed to the Liverpool merchant Thomas Ridpath, who only later found out that he was the owner of one of the rarest stamps in the world. (Photo: Getty Images)

2. In the same 1878 (according to some sources - in the 1880s), Ridpath sold it for 150 pounds ($ 750) to Baron Philip von Ferrari. After that, the brand gained popularity, and the price for it went up sharply. (Photo: Getty Images)

3. After a long journey from hand to hand, the stamp ended up with the American multimillionaire John du Pont, who bought it in 1980 for 935 thousand dollars and kept it presumably in a bank vault. In 1997, he was sentenced to prison for the murder of his friend and died in prison while serving his sentence at the age of 72. (Photo: PA)

4. Postage stamp "British Guiana", or "British Pink Guiana". (Photo: Getty Images)

5. Postage stamp "British Guiana", or "British Pink Guiana". (Photo: Getty Images)

6. The postage stamp "British Guiana" in 2014 should find a new owner. Who will become the owner of this rare specimen, perhaps we will find out very soon. (Photo: PA)