Tuesday, February 13, 2018

The World's Rarest Stamp

Where: Postal Museum

When: closing September 4, 2018

There's nothing I like better than seeing something that's the biggest, or smallest or oldest of its kind.  The stamp I saw this week is the rarest one in the world, so you know I was happy to trek over to Union Station to see it.

It's a British stamp from 1856; they issued very few of them, and there's only this one left.  It's changed hands several times and lives in a bank vault most of the time now.  This is its longest visit and most publicly accessible display ever.

It's upstairs in the stamp gallery in a box towards the back corner.  You have to push a button to turn on a light to see it, and even then, it's pretty dimly lit.

it occurs to me the curators would have been well served to pay a visit to the Sackler to see how to show priceless objects really well.  I was happy to have had the opportunity to see this item, but felt that a bit more pomp and circumstance would have been appropriate.

Verdict: It's the rarest stamp in the world!  Go see it.

No comments:

Post a Comment