Audrey Hepburn charity stamp

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Wohlfahrtsmarke Audrey Hepburn of Deutsche Post AG from the Class of 2001 with a photo of the actress from the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's (nominal 1.10 + 0.50 DM and 0.56 + 0.26 euro ) is the most valuable modern stamp in the world . Since it was never published after 14 million copies had been printed, there are only a few copies left. A single stamp with a corner border achieved an auction price of 135,000 euros in 2005, a sheet with ten stamps in 2010 for 430,000 euros.

History of origin

The surcharge stamp would have appeared on October 11, 2001 as a sheetlet of 10 stamps each or on November 13, 2001 as a stamp booklet as part of the welfare series "For Welfare 2001" and together with stamps from Charlie Chaplin , Marilyn Monroe , Greta Garbo and Jean Gabin should form the sentence “international film actors” . Instead, however, a stamp was issued with the image of a roll of film ( Michel catalog number: 2220), which, unlike the other stamps in the series and is common practice, does not say “For welfare”, but “Help with welfare stamps”. is labeled.

The design of the stamp set comes from the Munich graphic artist Antonia Graschberger .

The Federal Ministry of Finance had to refrain from issuing the stamps that had already been produced, as Hepburn's sons and heirs, Sean Ferrer from his marriage to Mel Ferrer and Luca Dotti from his marriage to Andrea Dotti, refused to give their consent. They did not consider a postage stamp that shows their mother with a cigarette holder and thus encourages harmful behavior to be desirable. The stamps were then destroyed. The first test print sheets, which had already been sent to the graphic designer, the chairman of the postage stamp advisory board Karl Oskar Blase , the Deutsche Post and the Ministry of Finance as the publisher, were then requested to be destroyed by the Bundesdruckerei. The graphic designer and the stamp advisory board followed suit, but not the ministry, which had received at least three sheets of ten. Of the two sheets that Deutsche Post had received, one each was given to the corporate archive of Deutsche Post and the archive for philately of the Museum Foundation Post and Telecommunications . The sheet from the Philately Archives was exhibited from May 6th to 10th, 2009 at the 19th International Stamp Fair in Essen.

The motif Greta Garbo was included in the series at a similarly short notice as the image of the film roll. Originally a brand with Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart was planned, but the necessary rights could not be obtained for this either.

The known specimens

Stamped single copies

The first copy

The stamp has a machine stamp from the Briefzentrum 12 (mb) Berlin-Südost in Schönefeld on October 14, 2003, 10 p.m. The first copy of the Audrey Hepburn charity stamp was discovered by the collector Werner Dürrschmidt from Leupoldsgrün at the end of 2004. Companies in Germany sent him regular company mail envelopes. In one such mailing from a company in Lower Saxony with 2,000 to 3,000 stamps, he found the unknown stamp with the image of Audrey Hepburn. An expert confirmed the authenticity. On January 5, 2005 the copy was shown publicly for the first time in the Bonn Archive for Philately and then at the National Postage Stamp Exhibition (NAPOSTA) from June 2 to 5, 2005 in the Hanover Congress Center .

On October 6, 2006, the stamp was auctioned at the Felzmann auction house for 53,000 euros. All that is known about the new owner is that he comes from Germany.

The second copy

The stamp has a machine stamp from the letter center 10 (mc) Berlin-Zentrum in Berlin on November 2, 2003, 8 p.m.

The second specimen was found by a collector from Frankfurt am Main and auctioned on June 1, 2005 at the Heinrich Köhler auction house in Wiesbaden for 58,000 euros. The new owner from southern Germany was satisfied with the purchase price and said: "My bid would have gone further."

The third copy

The stamp has a day stamp from Kleinmachnow 1 (zip code 14532) from February 11, 2004, 6 p.m.

On October 7, 2005, the financial investor Gerd Bennewirtz from Korschenbroich bought the most beautiful of the three previously known specimens, a left upper corner piece, at the Felzmann auction house in Düsseldorf  - for the record price of 135,000 euros. A collector from the Berlin-Brandenburg area had discovered the perfectly preserved copy in cheap kilo goods , but paid it no attention for months until he found out about the two other copies.

The stamp was auctioned for 92,000 euros in February 2019, the first starting price was 65,000 euros, plus the premium, this resulted in a price of 114,000 euros.

The fourth copy

The stamp has a machine stamp from the letter center 13 (mf) Berlin-Nord in Hennigsdorf with illegible date.

Another example was shown at the postage stamp exchange in Sindelfingen in 2007 and auctioned off on May 9, 2009 at the IBRA in Essen by the Düsseldorf auction house Felzmann for 60,000 euros to an anonymous bidder.

The fifth copy

The stamp has a day stamp imprint that is only just under a quarter complete. There are barely four letters (probably “... village” ) to be recognized.

Another example, which had also been found in kilo goods, was auctioned between May 25 and 27, 2009 in the Hotel Kempinski in Berlin by the Berlin auction house Schlegel for 53,500 euros.

Complete sheets of stamps and mint never hinged copies

Three complete mint sheets with ten stamps each were known: one in the archive of the Post, one in the archive for philately of the Museum Foundation Post and Telecommunications and one that had been given to Sean Ferrer at the time of printing. He had it auctioned on October 16, 2010 by the Berlin auction house Schlegel in the Berlin Hotel Adlon for the benefit of UNICEF (1/3) and the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund (2/3) for 430,000 euros. The highest bidder had the sheet largely singled out at the end of October 2010 in order to resell the individual brands to interested collectors. Currently (October 2010) there are only four related copies of the sheet left.

In November 2015, a mint stamp with a right sheet edge from the isolated sheet was auctioned on eBay . A total of 42 bidders submitted 150 bids. On November 29, 2015, the bid ended after ten days at 64,750.00 euros.

See also

literature

  • Jan Billion: Hepburn Brand: Let the Hunt Begin! In: Deutsche Briefmarken-Revue issue No. 2/2005, p. 15
  • Wolfgang Maassen: eBay is auctioning “Audrey Hepburn brand”! in: philately issue 461 from November 2015; P. 8

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Deutsche Briefmarken-Revue, Issue No. 11/2001, p. 9
  2. ↑ Possibly valuable postage stamps disappeared - postage crime thriller at Eichel ( memento of the original from March 26, 2012 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in RP online from December 26, 2004 - Valuable stamps disappeared in Der Spiegel , issue: 53/2004, from December 27, 2004 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rp-online.de
  3. ↑ Werner Dürrschmidt and his discovery, on mdr.de (page is no longer online)
  4. ^ Michel current: Audrey Hepburn stamp for 53,000 EUR auctioned on October 16, 2006
  5. ↑ Hepburn stamp auctioned for EUR 58,000 - NAPOSTA presents a second copy on michel.de - EUR 58,000 for a postage stamp on spiegel.de from June 1, 2005
  6. ↑ Illustration: The third copy (corner piece ) on go-trading.de
  7. ↑ 111th auction, lot no. 7245  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Felzmann auction house@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.felzmann.de  
  8. ↑ "Hepburn brand achieves record price" ( Memento of December 28, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) on wdr .de as of October 7, 2005 - page no longer available , search in web archives: film report - WDR as of October 7, 2005 - Michel current: Audrey Hepburn for 135,000 €@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.wdr.de
  9. ↑ Lot no .: 26915 (from auction no .: 43 from 7-8 / 18-22 February 2019) ; on www.auktionen-gaertner.de
  10. ^ Philately (magazine) ; Issue 502, April 2019; 71st year; P. 5 (advertisement of the auction house)
  11. ↑ Michel aktuell: Fourth Hepburn stamp appeared on October 23, 2007 - Figure: The fourth copy  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on felzmann.de@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.felzmann.de  
  12. ↑ Deutsche Briefmarken-Zeitung issue No. 24/2007, p. 22
  13. ↑ Only five copies left - auction of rare Hepburn stamps ( Memento of the original from May 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on n24.de on March 17, 2009 - Rare Audrey Hepburn stamp will be auctioned in Berlin on March 18, 2009 at berlin.business-on.de/- Image: The fifth copy on berlin.business-on.de  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.n24.de
  14. ↑ Hepburn stamp auctioned for 67,000 euros ( Memento from May 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) on sueddeutsche.de
  15. ↑ Interview with Sean Hepburn Ferrer www.auktionshaus-schlegel, as of June 9, 2010 - Forbidden Hepburn stamp brings over 400,000 euros to spiegel online from October 16, 2010
  16. ↑ philatelie - the magazine of the Association of German Philatelists, issue 398, 62nd year, August 2010, insert between pages 50 and 51
  17. ↑ Hepburn sheet cut up after auction - "Mister X": Make ten out of one ...; in: Briefmarken-Spiegel, issue 12/2010, p. 6
  18. ↑ Legendary rarity: Audrey Hepburn stamp to be auctioned on eBay eBay press release of November 18, 2015
  19. ↑ Overview of bids from the November 2015 auction and press release Legendary rarity: Audrey Hepburn stamp for 64,750 euros on eBay from November 30, 2015 on ebay.de
  20. ↑ Audrey Hepburn stamp from Constance for 64,750 euros auctioned on suedkurier.de on November 29, 2015