Inverted Swan

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Inverted Swan
Perth
Date of production	January 1855
Nature of rarity	Invert error
No. in existence	15 + a partial
Face value	4-pence
Estimated value	US$37,500 - US$80,000

The Inverted Swan, a 4-pence blue postage stamp issued in 1855 by Western Australia, was one of the world's first invert errors. Technically, it is the frame that is inverted, not the image of the swan, but it has become commonly known as the Inverted Swan.

In 1854, Western Australia issued its first stamps, featuring the colony's symbol, the

, and with different frames around the swan design for each value.

The error

In January 1855, additional 4d stamps were needed. When Alfred Hillman brought the printing stone out of storage, he found that two of the impressions had been damaged, so he had to redo them. One of the replaced frames was tilted; the other was accidentally redone upside-down. The stone's block of 60 was transferred four times to make the printing stone, and 97 sheets were printed before Hillman discovered the mistake and corrected it, resulting in a total of 388 errors being printed.^{[citation needed]}

However, the errors went unrecognised and unreported for several years. Only 15 complete copies, plus a part of a stamp in a strip of three, have survived. No unused copies are known.

One example was discovered in Ireland in the 1860s, acquired by the

, in addition to private collections.

Copies of this stamp have been sold over the years such as, a 1980 auction realisation US$80,000,^{[citation needed]} for $37,500 in 1983^{[citation needed]} and for £122,400 in a Spink auction on 19 May 2015.^[2]

See also

• List of notable postage stamps

References

Sources

• Philatelic Gems 1. Amos Press, 1989.