Japan 1871 Dragon 500 Mon (inverted centre)

Japan's first stamps

Japan's modern postal service was the work of Maejima Hisoka, often called the father of the Japanese post. He presented his plan for a practical, unified service in June 1870; it was approved that October, and in December the Council of State ordered the Ministry of Finance to begin printing stamps. Postal regulations setting the first routes and rates were published in February 1871, and on April 20, 1871 (the first day of the third month of Meiji 4) the first official mail left Tokyo on the corridor running to Kyoto and Osaka. The new stamps had gone on sale in Tokyo about a week earlier.

There were four values, all with the same design: two dragons facing each other around a central tablet carrying the value in black characters. The 48 mon was brown, the 100 mon blue, the 200 mon vermilion and the 500 mon green. They were imperforate and printed in sheets of 40, five rows of eight.

The 500 mon was the top value, reserved under the first rate schedule for long distances and heavy, multiple-weight letters. In 1871 the basic letter rate from Tokyo to Osaka was 1,500 mon, so even the largest stamp covered only a third of it.

How one sheet went in upside down

The 500 mon was printed in two passes. First the plate carrying the dragons and the frame was printed in color. After the ink dried, a second plate printed the value characters in black. Before that second pass, at least one sheet was apparently stacked upside down, so every stamp on it received its value tablet inverted.

That is what makes the error impossible to fake convincingly. The plates were hand-engraved, and every one of the forty positions differs slightly. On the surviving stamp, the green frame is from position 8, in the upper right corner of the sheet, while the black characters match position 33, in the lower left. Those two positions fall exactly in line only when a sheet is turned around, which is what experts point to when they call its authenticity beyond doubt.

The stamp is from the earliest printing of plate 1, with a deep shade, a detailed impression and large, even margins. It carries a light, partial strike of a large Kakegawa "Kensazumi" (inspected) postmark that leaves the inverted characters clear. A small pinhole at the top right is not damage: printers pinned sheets together at the four corners so a stack could be cut at once.

A U.S. stamp newspaper identified it as the type I 500 mon, which has solid dots in the inner border around the dragons and characters, and called the color blue green. The firm that sold it in 2023 describes it as greyish yellow-green. Both describe the same stamp; the 500 mon appears in a range of green shades.

Twenty years in a drawer

The error was found by John C. Linsley, an American collector who spotted the inverted characters in a Japan collection he had acquired. One account dates the discovery to 1953 and says he died in 1954; others say only that it was found sometime between 1953 and 1973. Linsley was never sure whether the stamp was genuine and did nothing with it.

It passed to his adopted son, Mark E. Weber, who in 1973 sent it to Dr. Varro E. Tyler, chairman of the expert committee of the International Society for Japanese Philately. Tyler believed it genuine but wanted stronger confirmation, so he sent it to the expert committee of the All Japan Philatelic Federation. Fearing that registered mail would attract thieves, he sent the unique stamp by ordinary mail.

It arrived safely with Dr. Tani Takashi, who could hardly believe what he saw and rushed it to Dr. Ichida Soichi, the most renowned authority of the day. After careful examination Ichida declared it genuine, and that verdict has not been questioned since. The original 1973 certificate has been lost; Tyler's pencil signature remains on the back. Later certificates from the Philatelic Federation of Japan are cited with different dates, 2011 by the 2023 seller's catalog page and 2016 by a museum listing and an earlier article.

Owners and sales

The stamp first sold publicly in Tokyo in December 1973, offered as "one of the ten most valuable philatelic items in the world." The 2023 seller's provenance lists a hammer price of 21 million yen, a group of four Japanese dealers as buyers, a private sale to Ichiro Kondo for 25.5 million yen and then Ryohei Ishikawa in 1974. A separate article by the same firm says it sold at that 1973 auction for $75,000 directly to Ishikawa, a celebrated collector who called it "the most valuable stamp in the world" for an Asian collector and said he would have paid any price to own it. A museum listing also records $75,000 in 1973 with Ishikawa as owner.

Ishikawa's company exhibited it at a stamp show in San Francisco in 1978. After that the stamp moved privately among Japanese collectors: to a collector named Hayashi in 1995 and to Yuji Yamada, who bought it privately for an undisclosed sum (dated 2013 by the seller's provenance and 2012 by a museum listing). Its owner exhibited it as part of a collection of Japan's 1871-1876 hand-engraved issues that won a Grand Prix National at Philanippon 2021.

On June 3, 2023, it was sold at auction in Geneva as the centerpiece of the "Meiji" property of classic Japan, with an estimate of EUR 4 million to 5 million. An Asian buyer bidding by telephone won it for EUR 5.4 million including the 23 percent buyer's premium, reported as almost $5.8 million. The underbidder, a European collector, was quoted as saying he had planned to go as high as EUR 4 million and had gone a few steps beyond.

A U.S. stamp newspaper reported that the price placed it third among single philatelic items, behind the Mauritius "Post Office" cover sold in Germany in 2021 for almost $12 million and the British Guiana One-Cent Magenta, sold in New York in 2021 for $8.3 million. One page from the seller headlines the result as EUR 4,620,000, a figure that does not match the EUR 5.4 million reported elsewhere and may reflect a different basis; the reported EUR 5.4 million including premium is used here.

The most valuable stamp in Asia

Before the 2023 sale, the auctioneer argued that the stamp combines three things rarely found together: it is from a country's first issue and is that issue's highest value, it comes from a nation with a deep collecting tradition and it is the most valuable stamp in Asia. The firm's founder said he saw no reason it could not one day become the most valuable stamp in the world.

The ordinary 500 mon Dragon is a very different object. A plain used example from the same plate and printing sold in the same 2023 sale for EUR 2,200. The difference between the two is one sheet put on the press the wrong way around, and a single surviving stamp to prove it.

When the stamp was sold it was presented on its previous owner's exhibition page together with two normal 500 mon stamps from the same position 8, one unused and one used, so viewers could compare the correct and inverted value tablets side by side.

The numbers

Issue date

April 20, 1871 (Meiji 4, 3rd month, 1st day); on sale in Tokyo about a week earlier

Values in the set

48, 100, 200 and 500 mon

Sheet

40 stamps, five rows of eight

Plate and position

Plate 1, earliest printing; frame position 8, value tablet position 33

Examples known

1 (used)

Perforation

Imperforate

Printing

Two passes from hand-engraved copper plates: frame in color, then value in black

Timeline

1. Jun 1870

   Maejima Hisoka presents his plan for a national postal service.

2. Dec 1870

   The Council of State orders the Ministry of Finance to begin printing stamps.

3. Apr 20, 1871

   Japan's postal service opens between Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka with the four Dragon stamps.

4. 1953

   John C. Linsley spots the inverted characters in a Japan collection he has acquired (one account; others give 1953-1973).

5. 1973

   Mark E. Weber submits the stamp for expertizing; experts in the United States and Japan declare it genuine.

6. Dec 1973

   First public sale, in Tokyo. Reported as a 21 million yen hammer price and, in another account, $75,000.

7. 1973

   Bought privately by Ichiro Kondo for 25.5 million yen, according to the 2023 seller's provenance.

8. 1974

   Enters the collection of Ryohei Ishikawa (dated 1973 in another account).

9. 1978

   Shown at a stamp show in San Francisco by Ishikawa's company.

10. 1995

    Acquired by a Japanese collector named Hayashi.

11. 2013

    Sold privately to Yuji Yamada for an undisclosed amount (dated 2012 in a museum listing).

12. 2021

    Shown in a collection of Japan's hand-engraved issues awarded a Grand Prix National at Philanippon 2021.

13. Jan 31, 2023

    Announced for auction as "Asia's most valuable stamp."

14. Jun 3, 2023

    Sold at auction in Geneva for EUR 5.4 million with premium, almost $5.8 million, to an Asian telephone bidder.

The world in 1871

• Jan 18, 1871

  The German Empire is proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, with Wilhelm I as emperor.

• Jan 28, 1871

  Japan's first Japanese-language daily newspaper is printed in Yokohama.

• Mar 18, 1871

  The Paris Commune begins; it falls to French government forces on May 28.

• Jun 27, 1871

  The yen becomes Japan's national currency.

• Oct 8, 1871

  The Great Chicago Fire breaks out and burns for two days.

• Nov 10, 1871

  Henry Morton Stanley finds David Livingstone at Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika.

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, Japan 1871 Dragon 500 Mon (inverted centre) is number 2 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 (57 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Its expert sent the unique stamp across the Pacific by ordinary mail, fearing registered mail would draw the attention of thieves.
• The pinhole at its top right corner is original: printers pinned stacks of sheets together at the corners for cutting.
• It is the only inverted center known in all of classic Japanese stamps.
• Its original 1973 certificate has been lost, but the expert's pencil signature, "Tyler," is still on the back.
• An ordinary used 500 mon from the same plate sold in the same auction for EUR 2,200.
• Ryohei Ishikawa, one of its owners, said he would have paid any price to obtain it.