FLOAT
A tete-beche pair of the 1863 Ottoman 20-para black on yellow Tughra first issue - the same tete-beche form as the record Samakov cover named by this constituent, though not that cover itself.
A tete-beche pair of the 1863 Ottoman 20-para black on yellow Tughra first issue - the same tete-beche form as the record Samakov cover named by this constituent, though not that cover itself.

Ottoman Empire 1863 Tughra (First Issue)

Maker
Ottoman Empire (Sultan Abdulaziz)
Year
1863
Rank
59 of 100
Identifier
20pa Tughra first issue; record lot = tete-beche block of six with red control band on Samakov to Istanbul cover

Ottoman Empire 1863 Tughra (First Issue)

Realized at auction: $70,800, dated 2010-08-01. This is a realized sale. Somebody paid it.

What is it, and why is it in the FLOAT 100?

The first stamp of the Ottoman Empire, called 'the most important item of Turkish Philately' by Spink.

20pa Tughra first issue; record lot = tete-beche block of six with red control band on Samakov to Istanbul cover

What is the best-sourced number for it?

Figure
$70,800
Kind
Realized at auction
Date
2010-08-01

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, Ottoman Empire 1863 Tughra (First Issue) is number 51 of 99 in the stamps entries of the FLOAT 100. 75 of those 99 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 (59 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

How this is made

The figure
One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
Realized or not
A realized price is a completed sale. A market asking price and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
Why no grade ladder
Most FLOAT 100 entries are individual objects. There is one of this, so there is no population and no spread across grades to show.
Archive
2026-08-08

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