Rare Gandhi Stamp

Reporter Brian de Souza writes on the DNA India Web site, "According to eBay India, someone buys a stamp online every 12 minutes. Among the most popular are those of Mahatma Gandhi, and stamps from India's erstwhile princely states. India's rich past makes investments in rare Indian stamps attractive, according to Adrian Roose, investment manager at Stanley Gibbons, international philatelists."

Among the world's most valuable stamps is a 10-rupee Gandhi which is shown above. Its catalogue value recently went up from £14,000 to £25,000. Roose is quoted as saying, "We have a waiting list of clients wishing to obtain this stamp."

The stamp depicting Mahatma Gandhi was issued by India in 1948. Only 100 of these stamps were overprinted with the word "Service" and provided exclusively to the Governor General of India for his official use.

De Souza also reports, "The net has also turned millions of people into stamp collectors (48 million, according to one estimate). When you couple that with the fact that the supply of stamps is drying up in the email age, and that stamps are a perishable commodity (one collection worth £200,000 went up in smoke in the recent Australian bushfire, for example), you can see how an investment in stamps may be well worth one's time and money."

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