Chinese Error Pair Up for Auction

Bloomberg.com reports, "On Nov. 25, 1968, as the Cultural Revolution raged in China, the government issued a stamp called 'Whole Country Is Red,' with a scarlet map of the nation. Within half a day of its release, post offices were told to pull it."

Jeffrey Schneider, a British Philatelic Association member whose company is holding a Jan. 31 auction of Hong Kong stamps is quoted as saying,"That’s after an editor at the China Atlas Press complained that Xisha and Nansha, islands in the South China Sea known as the Paracel and Spratly, were omitted on the map."

"There was another problem: Taiwan was colored white," writes reporter Le-Min Lim.

According to Le-min, "The island was the bastion of Kuomintang troops that were defeated by their Communist rivals on the mainland in 1949. Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek had seized control of Taiwan and claimed to be the legitimate government even of the mainland. Today, China still considers Taiwan a breakaway province that must be recaptured, even if by force."

Some of “Whole Country Is Red” had been sold before they were taken off sale. At the upcoming auction, a pair (as shown above) with a face value of 8 cents each, may fetch HK$2.2 million ($283,000). The lot is among 1,800 items that’s expected to fetch more than HK$45 million.

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