'Horse and Dragons' Set Chinese Stamp Record

The Wall Street Journal reports, "A sheet of 25 green horse-and-dragon stamps, along with a sheet of a similar design but in red, sold for $1.3 million at auction Saturday in Hong Kong, setting a new record for a set of Chinese stamps."

According to reporter Jason Chow, "The horse-and-dragon stamps were originally commissioned by the Chinese Empress Dowager in 1886 for Taiwan when the island first established its postal service. But the stamps were never put to use in the mail because the island was sparsely populated at the time and the postal service had so little business. Instead, they were used as railway tickets (the railway company would stamp their own logo and information on the stamp). Many of the stamps used as tickets are considered collectibles today."

He goes on to pen, "What made the green set so interesting to collectors is that they're a full, unmarked sheet in mint condition—the only one known to exist. The red set, also rare, is one of only two known to collectors. The last time the green stamps came to light was in the early 1980s, when a Taiwanese collector bought them at an auction."

Shown here, "Horse-and-Dragon" stamps.

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