Existing comment:
1878: The wealthy collector COunt Philipp von Ferrary purchases the stamp for a sum thought to be 40 pounds. It will not emerge from his vast Paris estate for nearly 40 years.
1917: Ferrary dies at the age of 67. His massive stamp collection is willed to the Berlin postal museum. However, because France and Germany are at war, his stamp collection are seized a few years later by the French government as enemy property and sold to pay off German war reparations.
1922: American industrialist Arthur Hind pays $32,500 for the One-Cent Magenta, making it the most valuable stamp in the world.
Arthur Hind [center] poses with philatelists Charles Phillips [left] and Gus Mosler at the American Philatelic Society's convention in Boston, August 1930.
1933: Arthur Hind dies, leaving a "dwelling, furniture, paintings but not my stamp collection" to his widow. Ann Hind sues her husband's estate for the One-Cent Magenta, claiming he gave it to her before his death. The case is settled in her favor.
Ann Hind [center] shows the One-Cent Magenta to prominent stamp collector Ernest Kehr [left] and Grover Whalen, president of the New York World's Fair.
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1970: Frederick T. Small, an Australian living in Florida, is identified as the stamp's owner when he sells it for $280,000 to a group of investors headed b Pennsylvania stamp dealer Irwin Weinberg, who spends the next decade promoting it with theatrical flair.
Irwin Weinberg steps into an armored car with a briefcase containing the One-Cent Magenta handcuffed to his wrist, Philadelphia, 1976.
1980: An anonymous buyer, later revealed to be John E. du Pont, purchases the stamp for $935,000. Amateur wresting replaces philately as du Pont's main interest, and the stamp again disappears from public view for decades.
2010: John du Pont dies in prison while serving a 13-to-30 year prison sentence for third-degree murder.
2014: The stamp is sold on behalf of the du Pont estate to shoe designer and entrepreneur Stuart Weitzman.
2015: The One-Cent Magenta returns to public view once again at the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum. |