China 1968 'Mao's Inscription to Japanese Worker Friends' (unissued)

A slogan for Japanese workers

On the evening of September 18, 1962, Mao Zedong received a Japanese delegation of worker activists in Beijing and, at their request, wrote them an inscription. It reads, in the official English translation: "The Japanese revolution will undoubtedly be victorious, provided the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism is really integrated with the concrete practice of the Japanese revolution." It is signed and dated September 18, 1962.

Beijing's newspapers reported the meeting on their front pages two days later but did not mention the inscription. The Workers' Daily printed Mao's handwriting on November 21, 1965. On September 18, 1968, the sixth anniversary, the major papers printed it again, and the Peking Review carried an English text that week.

That autumn, at the height of the Cultural Revolution, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications prepared a commemorative stamp to go on sale on October 1, 1968, National Day, under the issue number Wen 15. The stamp reproduces Mao's calligraphy in black on a red ground, the source of its collector nickname, the "Black Inscription." Archival research published in 2002 dates the stamp's final form to between September 24 and 26, 1968.

Cancelled by telegram

On September 27, 1968, the Communist Party center held a conference on propaganda work. Its theme was how to promote Mao Zedong Thought correctly, and it relayed Mao's instruction that propaganda aimed abroad should not be forced on others. Zhou Enlai, summing up, said that not every kind of product should be printed with Mao's portrait and quotations, though stamps should still be issued and their designs guided properly.

The military control committee running the postal ministry acted the same day. It ruled that stamps would no longer carry Mao's image, quotations or poems; that printed but unissued stamps would be stopped; and that stamps already issued could stay on sale. Urgent telegrams went out to every province, city and autonomous region cancelling two issues set for October 1: this one and "Long Live the Total Victory of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution." The stamps were to be returned to Beijing.

A second explanation is widely repeated. Several accounts, including a 2011 BBC report, say the stamp was dropped because Japan objected, fearing the reaction of its own population or accusing China of exporting revolution. A Singapore newspaper's 2019 report describes the Japanese protest as a rumor and gives the propaganda conference as the cause. Both versions are in circulation; the documentary record cited by Chinese sources points to the conference.

The few that got away

Post offices in the Baoding and Shijiazhuang area of Hebei province sold the stamp ahead of the official date, and more copies escaped during the destruction process. Chinese accounts put the number released at fewer than 10. One English-language dealer account places the early sales in Hubei province instead; the Chinese sources consistently say Hebei, and every used copy known carries a Hebei postmark.

Both mint and used copies exist, used ones being more common, and both perforated and imperforate examples are known. At first only one was known in China, displayed in the postal ministry's museum. On September 7, 1985, a used copy postmarked Shijiazhuang, February 9, 1969, turned up at the Shijiazhuang stamp market and was acquired by the Hebei Stamp Company.

The stamp is absent from the People's Republic's own official stamp catalogs and from its official postal history, but Japanese and French catalogs list and illustrate it. International catalogs number it W84.

From 160,000 yuan to a world record

Chinese auction records trace the stamp's rise. A used copy sold in Beijing in 1995 for 160,000 yuan. In 1996 a single brought 300,000 yuan and a pair 600,000 yuan. In November 1997 in Shanghai, a single with a margin made 260,000 yuan and another pair 400,000 yuan. Later singles sold for 144,000 yuan (1998), 176,000 yuan (2002 and 2006) and 88,000 yuan (2007). In January 2010 one sold in Hong Kong for HK$920,000.

The great piece is a corner block of four, believed to be the largest surviving multiple and probably the only block. It came from the Cultural Revolution collection of Ng Siong Tee, which won a gold medal at the 1999 international stamp exhibition in Beijing. Offered at auction in Hong Kong in late February 2011 with an estimate of HK$6 million to HK$8 million, it sold for HK$8,970,000 (US$1,151,630) to a Hong Kong collector, a world record at the time for a Chinese stamp lot at auction.

Single copies remain in demand. In March 2019 a single sold at a spring auction in Hong Kong for HK$552,000, nearly 6 million times its 8-fen face value in the reporter's arithmetic. A mint single with one slightly short perforation has been offered in Hong Kong with an estimate of HK$800,000 to HK$900,000, and a UK dealer has listed one at a guide price of £70,000.

A treasure of the Cultural Revolution

Between 1967 and 1971 the postal service issued 19 sets totaling 80 stamps, distinct in design and heavily political, and they became highly collectible after the Cultural Revolution ended. The rarest are the ones that were withdrawn: the typical pattern was a stamp sold early by a few isolated post offices and then pulled before its official date.

The Black Inscription sits among other withdrawn rarities of the period, such as the unissued 8-fen stamp showing Mao with Lin Biao, prepared to celebrate the victory of the Cultural Revolution, and the map stamp "The Whole Country Is Red," pulled within hours of going on sale on November 25, 1968. Its 2011 sale came as prices for People's Republic stamps were soaring; the BBC reported that many had risen 200 percent or more in two or three years and that supply was not keeping up with demand.

The numbers

Planned issue date

October 1, 1968; cancelled September 27, 1968

Issue number

Wen 15 (planned); catalog number W84

Face value

8 fen

Size

52 x 30 mm

Colors

Black inscription on red

Quantity escaped

Reported as fewer than 10

Perforation

Both perforated and imperforate examples are reported

Largest multiple

Corner block of four

Timeline

1. Sep 18, 1962

   Mao writes the inscription for a visiting Japanese workers' delegation in Beijing.

2. Sep 20, 1962

   Beijing papers report the meeting on their front pages without mentioning the inscription.

3. Nov 21, 1965

   The Workers' Daily prints Mao's handwritten inscription on its front page.

4. Sep 18, 1968

   On the sixth anniversary, the major papers publish the inscription.

5. Sep 24, 1968

   Between this date and September 26, the stamp takes its final form, according to archival research.

6. Sep 27, 1968

   After a central propaganda conference, the postal ministry cancels the October 1 issue by urgent telegram.

7. Oct 1, 1968

   The planned issue date passes; the stamp is never officially released.

8. Feb 9, 1969

   A copy is postmarked at Shijiazhuang, Hebei.

9. Sep 7, 1985

   That used copy is found at the Shijiazhuang stamp market.

10. 1995

    A used copy sells in Beijing for 160,000 yuan.

11. 1996

    A single sells for 300,000 yuan and a pair for 600,000 yuan.

12. Nov 1997

    In Shanghai, a single with margin brings 260,000 yuan and a pair 400,000 yuan.

13. 1999

    Ng Siong Tee's Cultural Revolution collection, including the corner block, wins gold at the international exhibition in Beijing.

14. Jan 2010

    A single sells in Hong Kong for HK$920,000.

15. Feb 2011

    The corner block of four sells at auction in Hong Kong for HK$8,970,000 (US$1,151,630).

16. Mar 2019

    A single sells at auction in Hong Kong for HK$552,000.

The world in 1968

• Jan 5, 1968

  Alexander Dubček becomes leader of Czechoslovakia's Communist Party, opening the Prague Spring.

• Jan 30, 1968

  The Tet Offensive begins in South Vietnam.

• Apr 4, 1968

  Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis.

• Jun 5, 1968

  Robert F. Kennedy is shot in Los Angeles.

• Aug 20, 1968

  Warsaw Pact forces invade Czechoslovakia, ending the Prague Spring.

• Oct 2, 1968

  Troops fire on student protesters at Tlatelolco in Mexico City, 10 days before the Olympics.

• Nov 25, 1968

  China withdraws its "Whole Country Is Red" stamp within hours of sale.

• Dec 24, 1968

  Apollo 8 enters orbit around the Moon.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, China 1968 'Mao's Inscription to Japanese Worker Friends' (unissued) is number 14 of 100 in the stamps entries of the FLOAT 100. 82 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (55 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The stamp was cancelled on September 27, 1968, just four days before it was due on sale.
• Mao's inscription was kept out of the newspapers for three years after he wrote it.
• The same telegram also killed a second Cultural Revolution stamp, "Long Live the Total Victory of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution."
• Every used copy known was postmarked in Hebei province.
• China's own official stamp catalogs leave it out, while Japanese and French catalogs list and illustrate it.
• A single copy that cost 8 fen in 1968 sold for HK$552,000 in 2019.