Inverted Stamp of China.

A Rare Inverted Chinese Stamp. Do you have it?

 

 

1915 $2.00 Blue and Black



Historical background information.

 



The Beijing Guozijian

 

The Beijing Guozijian was the imperial college (Guozijian) during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and the last Guozijian of China. Most of the Beijing Guozijian's buildings were built during the Ming Dynasty and it remains an important heritage site in China. During the Hundred Days' Reform of the Qing Dynasty, the education and administration of education functions of Guozijian was mainly replaced by the Imperial Capital University (also translated as Imperial University of Peking), later known as Peking University. In 1905, Guozijian was finally shut down.
The whole complex of Guozijian faces south, and it has a total building area of more than 10,000 square meters or 107,639 square feet.

Sir Robert Hart, 1st Baronet, IMCS 1863-1911

Chinese Customs"
Hart as caricatured in
Vanity Fair, December 1894

Guozijian, often translated into English as, the Imperial Academy or Imperial College, was the national central institute of learning in ancient Chinese dynasties. It was the highest institute of learning in China's traditional educational system. Emperors in imperial China would also frequently visit the Guozijian to read Confucian classics to thousands of students.

A policy of isolation was forcibly ended in the 19th century by the Opium War and the subsequent opening of treaty ports; several nations opened foreign post offices from 1844 on. This expanded to involve dozens of cities, mostly on the coast, along the Yangtze River, and in the far south. Shanghai organized its own Shanghai local post in 1865. In the same year, the Englishman Robert Hart developed a mail service for the Imperial Maritime Customs, initially to carry consular mail to and from treaty ports. This service was opened to the public on 1 May 1878, and China's first postage stamps, the "Large Dragons"  were issued to handle payment. The stamps were inscribed "CHINA" in both Latin and Chinese characters, and denominated in candareens.

Large Dragon Stamps 1st May 1878

Initially, all mail to foreign destinations went through Shanghai, but by 1882 there were twelve post offices. On 20 March 1896, an edict directed that the Customs Post become the Imperial Postal Service effective 1 January 1897; the Min Hsin Chu was shut down, as well as the Shanghai local post, and postal system adopted cents and dollars as the units of currency.

Through the first half of 1897, new stamps were unavailable, and so the existing stock was surcharged in cents, with several variants distinguished by philatelists. Revenue stamps were surcharged as well.

The first new stamps, inscribed IMPERIAL CHINESE POST went on sale 16 August 1897. The twelve values, ranging from 1/2c to $5, were lithographed in Japan. The low values depicted a dragon, the middle values a carp, and the dollar values a wild goose. The paper used for these stamps had a watermark in the form of a yin-yang symbol.

Imperial Chinese Postage Stamps

The attractive Arch of the Hall of Classics design used on the dollar values of the Junk series was printed in sheets of 50 (10x5) in the Peking printings. Only one sheet of this error was found in the Hankow post office, making a total of only 50 such stamps originally printed.




 

#237a, 1915 $2.00 Hall of Classics, first Peking printing, Center Inverted, a marvelous example of this famous inverted center error, being the remarkable top sheet-margin plate no. "1" single (also showing a portion of the imprint in the selvage), possessing strong bright colors and highly detailed impressions, full original gum that has only been lightly hinged, a trivial translucent spot in top right margin mentioned for accuracy only, fine. The attractive Arch of the Hall of Classics design used on the dollar values of the Junk series was printed in sheets of 50 (10x5) in the Peking printings. Only one sheet of this error was found in the Hankow post office, making a total of only 50 such stamps originally printed and, of course, this is unique as the sole plate number single from the sheet. This is only the second example of this rarity we have ever had the pleasure to offer in our auctions. A fresh example with slightly irregular perforations at left realized $26,500.00, plus the buyer's premium, in our September 2005 Collector's Series Sale (Chan #245a; $22,000.00).

 

Lot 1103: http://stampauctionnetwork.com/f/f11417.cfm

This stamp actually realised at an online auction in 2005 - $60,000

So keep a look out in your albums you may have one!!!

Happy Stamping peeps!!