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Mauritius

Tuesday, September 21, 1847

  British Colony 1

Mauritius Sc1
 Mauritius Sc2
  Mauritius #1 #2  

Imperforate, no watermark, engraved.

Description # printed # known unused # known used Scott SG Mi Y&T
1 penny orange
 approx 500 2 12 1 1    
2 pence dark blue
 approx. 500 6 6 2 2    

Individually printed, no pairs or larger units possible. Only one copy of an unused stamp, a one penny orange, is in private hands.

Surprisingly, it seems to be difficult to count the thirty or so stamps in existence. Some say there are 2 unused and 13 used of #1 and 4 unused and 8 used of #2. Most of the known stamps are in permanent museum collections.

Six covers are known.

  1. 1d - in the British Museum from the Tapling collection.
  2. 1d - in the Royal collection since 1904.
  3. 1d - the "Ball envelope" , ex-Kanai, sold by Feldman in 2006 for more than $3M.
  4. 2d - Bordeaux cover at the Reichspost museum in Berlin.
  5. 2d+1d Bordeaux cover, ex-Kanai
  6. 2x1d - the "Bombay cover"

The Bombay cover was sold by Feldman in December 2916 for €2M ($2.1M), together with the recently rediscovered printing plate for €1.1M.

Bombay cover
Mauritius Post office Plate
The Bombay Cover
The copper printing plate
81.05 x 60.6mm, weighing 46g

There is more detail at Classic Stamps of Mauritius and Helen Morgan's Blue Mauritius is a fascinating read.

Images from David Feldman.

FI ref: 8 Page credit: JA/NB

Page created 18 Nov 2015 Page updated 16-Jun-2017