Blue Mauritius, book cover

Welcome to the Blue Mauritius Research Companion

This website contains biographical and bibliographical information about the Post Office Mauritius stamps and subjects related to them. It is based on my research for the book Blue Mauritius: The Hunt for the World's Most Valuable Stamps.

Rarer Than the Post Office Mauritius

Functions
Attitudes
Alternative Names
  • Post Office Mauritius, Rarer Than
Summary

‘Rarer than the Post Office Mauritius’ became a catchcry during the twentieth century, yet no guarantee of commensurate fame and fortune.

There was only one stamp – a single specimen of the 1¢ 1856 stamp of British Guiana discovered in the late 1870s - that did eventually garner the honour of being the most expensive and the rarest stamp in the world. This was in 1980 and the record has been eclipsed many times by other stamps, including the ‘Post Office’.

By the early 1930s Charles J. Phillips acknowledged that there were numbers of nineteenth-century stamps rarer than the 'Post Office Mauritius'. They were indeed desirable, but, Phillips noted, 'Do not for a moment think that they should be priced as high. Many of these varieties are of minor importance'.

Bibliography

Journal Articles

Journal Notes

Prepared by: Helen Morgan