Hong Kong 1865 96c Olive-Bistre

The colony's first stamps

Hong Kong had a post office from 1841 but no stamps of its own for two decades; postmarks reading combinations of "HONG KONG" and "PAID" certified that postage had been paid. In 1860 Governor Sir Hercules Robinson asked for a supply of stamps for the colony. On December 8, 1862, the first local stamps went on sale: seven values bearing Queen Victoria's portrait, printed in London by De La Rue and engraved by Ferdinand Joubert.

The original set ran 2c brown, 8c yellow-buff, 12c pale blue, 18c lilac, 24c green, 48c rose and 96c brownish grey. A 2016 newspaper report, citing an earlier one, says the Queen's image on these stamps was based on sketches by Robinson himself, who governed Hong Kong from 1859 to 1865.

Two printings of the 96c, totaling 138 sheets of 240 stamps each, were made for the first issue. In 1863 De La Rue switched to a new paper carrying a watermark of a crown over the letters CC, for Crown Colony, as an added security measure. Using stamps became compulsory in Hong Kong by law in 1864, although many senders were still wary, because custom had long been for the receiver to pay.

A color nobody ordered

The 96c was used so rarely that no new supply was needed until March 1864, when De La Rue printed another 52 sheets and shipped them to Hong Kong. This time the stamps came off the press in olive-bistre, a yellowish olive, instead of brownish grey. There was no reason for the change; it is believed to have been a simple mistake at the printer.

The Hong Kong Post Office did not notice when the shipment arrived. The error was spotted only when the stamps were needed at the counters, too late to keep them out of use. An order for correctly colored stamps took six weeks to reach the printer and another six weeks to be printed and sent. In the meantime the old brownish-grey stock ran out, and some of the olive-bistre stamps had to be sold.

They were on sale from around January or February 1865 until the correct stamps arrived in late July or August 1865. The post office did not advertise the issue, which was associated with an embarrassing variation of color. The stamp is not known overprinted "SPECIMEN," which specialists take as further evidence that it was a genuine error rather than a planned color.

Sources date the stamp differently. Hong Kong specialists call it the 1865 olive-bistre, after the months it was in use, while some catalogs and reports place it within the 1863-71 watermarked series, and one report says the olive-bistre stamps were issued in 1863. This page follows the 1865 dating used by the specialists who have handled the block.

Why so few survive

Ninety-six cents was a large sum in 1865. Postal rates of the day for a letter under half an ounce from Hong Kong were 24 cents to Britain via Southampton, 32 cents via Marseilles, 46 cents to the United States via Southampton, 54 cents via Marseilles, and 8 cents for local and regional mail. A collectibles writer put it plainly in 2016: 96 cents could send a letter from Hong Kong to the United States and back again. Demand was low, few were sold, and unused stocks are thought to have been pulped.

Stamp collecting was in its infancy. The first printed stamp album had appeared only in 1862, and most collectors and dealers of the time missed the olive-bistre entirely. Specialists now keep a census of every unused example, with the names of the collectors who have owned them. That census records 48 unused examples. Only two are reported on cover.

The census may not be closed. A Hong Kong stamp firm has publicized an unused 1865 olive-bistre that it describes as newly found and not among the 48 previously recorded.

The block of four

The most important piece is a block of four from the right edge of the sheet, unused with full original gum, well centered and in fresh color. It is the only unused multiple of the stamp; the only other multiple thought to exist is a used pair. The block keeps the streaky gum typical of stamps printed at the time, which is usually lost. It has hinge remainders on the back, two old pencil marks of unknown origin in the margin, and a small natural paper inclusion in the fourth stamp. It also shows a watermark variety: the watermark sits unusually low, so the letters "CC" appear above the crown, at the top of the stamps.

Its recorded owners read like a list of the great Hong Kong collections. The New York philatelist George Burghard, who formed specialized collections of Hong Kong and early Switzerland and signed the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in 1960, sold the block privately around 1961. It then belonged to Ryohei Ishikawa, whose Hong Kong and Treaty Ports collection was sold at auction in December 1980 with the block on the front cover of the catalog, and later to Richard C.K. Chan, who collected Hong Kong for more than 30 years.

In January 2011 the block sold at auction in Hong Kong, at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental hotel, for HK$6.4 million to an anonymous buyer, the most ever paid for a Hong Kong stamp at auction in Hong Kong. That buyer consigned it again for a sale in Hong Kong on January 17, 2016, with an estimate of HK$7 million to HK$8 million. The specialist handling it called it "without question, the most important item of Hong Kong philately" and said the market for Hong Kong stamps had softened as collector attention shifted to mainland Chinese material. A UK dealer has also listed the block with an asking price of £960,000. The sources consulted for this page do not report a result for the 2016 sale.

Telling it apart

The color is the stamp. A genuine olive-bistre carries the same Queen Victoria design as the brownish-grey 96c, on paper watermarked Crown over CC. Used examples, some with a blue "B62" cancel, appear at auction far more often than unused ones.

The notorious forger Jean de Sperati made reproductions of the 1865 96c in both olive-green and olive-bistre shades on genuine watermarked stamp paper. Most kept genuine cancels, though some carry forged ones, and an example appeared on his well-known 1942 approval sheet. A reference on his work lists three points of comparison: a white spot in the ornament at the lower right corner, retouching in the horizontal lines above the "96" in the value tablet that is much more prominent in the olive-bistre shade, and a break in the horizontal shading lines in front of the Queen's nose.

The numbers

Issue date

Around January or February 1865; withdrawn late July or August 1865

Printing

52 sheets printed in March 1864 (the first-issue 96c printings used sheets of 240)

Unused recorded

48, including the block of four, plus one newly reported example

Multiples

One unused block of four; one used pair thought to exist

On cover

Two reported

Paper

Watermarked Crown over CC; the block shows the watermark set low, with CC above the crown

Gum

Streaky original gum typical of the period

Catalog number

18 in the standard British catalog, as cited in auction descriptions

Timeline

1. 1860

   Governor Sir Hercules Robinson requests a supply of stamps for Hong Kong.

2. Dec 8, 1862

   Hong Kong's first stamps go on sale, seven values including the 96c brownish grey, printed by De La Rue.

3. 1863

   De La Rue changes to paper watermarked Crown over CC.

4. Mar 1864

   A new printing of 52 sheets of the 96c is made and shipped to Hong Kong, in olive-bistre by mistake.

5. 1865

   Around January or February, the olive-bistre stamps are put on sale after the brownish-grey stock runs out.

6. 1865

   In late July or August, correctly colored stamps arrive and the olive-bistre is withdrawn.

7. 1942

   A Sperati reproduction of the 1865 96c appears on the forger's well-known approval sheet.

8. 1961

   Around this year, George Burghard of New York sells the unique unused block of four privately.

9. Dec 1980

   Ryohei Ishikawa's Hong Kong and Treaty Ports collection is sold at auction, with the block on the catalog's front cover.

10. Jan 2011

    The block sells at auction in Hong Kong for HK$6.4 million to an anonymous buyer, a record for a Hong Kong stamp sold in Hong Kong.

11. Nov 4, 2014

    A single example, described as one of 48 surviving, is offered at auction in Hong Kong.

12. Jan 17, 2016

    The block is offered again at auction in Hong Kong with an estimate of HK$7 million to HK$8 million.

The world in 1865

• Feb 8, 1865

  Gregor Mendel reads his paper on plant hybridization in Brünn, the founding work of genetics.

• Apr 9, 1865

  Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, effectively ending the American Civil War.

• Apr 15, 1865

  President Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot the night before.

• Jun 25, 1865

  James Hudson Taylor founds the China Inland Mission at Brighton, England.

• Jul 4, 1865

  Lewis Carroll publishes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

• Jul 14, 1865

  Edward Whymper's party makes the first ascent of the Matterhorn; four die on the way down.

• Jul 23, 1865

  The SS Great Eastern sails to lay a transatlantic telegraph cable.

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, Hong Kong 1865 96c Olive-Bistre is number 46 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 (53 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The post office did not notice it had received stamps in the wrong color until clerks needed them at the counter.
• Fixing the mistake took about three months: six weeks for the order to reach the printer and six weeks for new stamps to be printed and sent.
• 96 cents could pay for a letter from Hong Kong to the United States and back again, which is why so few were ever used.
• The first printed stamp album had appeared only three years earlier, so most collectors of the day never knew the stamp existed.
• The unique unused block of four shows a second oddity: its watermark sits so low that the letters CC appear above the crown.
• The forger Jean de Sperati copied this stamp on genuine watermarked paper, often keeping a genuine cancel.