New Zealand’s Rarest Stamp Expected to Sell for a Record breaking $250,000 at Auction!

 
Mowbray Collectables is pleased to announce that New Zealand’s rarest postage stamp, the unique 4d Lake Taupo with inverted centre, will be going under the hammer at our next international auction.

Estimated at NZ $250,000, the auction is being held on 20 September 2025 in Wellington, New Zealand. The current record for the most expensive New Zealand stamp ever sold is NZ $185,000.

Only one such 4d Lake Taupo stamp with an inverted centre has ever been found. The stamp was used in 1904 on a letter sent from Picton. It first surfaced in London in 1930, selling the following year at auction for just £61.

It then vanished into a private French collection for half a century, only re-emerging in New Zealand in 1982 when it was displayed at the Palmpex exhibition.

John Mowbray, the founder of Mowbray Collectables, acquired this remarkable stamp for NZ$125,000 on behalf of its current owner, NZ Post, in 1998. It was last on public display in 2005, at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa’s Stamped: Celebrating New Zealand’s postal history exhibition.

This stamp was scrutinised by Sir John Wilson, Sir Edward Bacon and other eminent philatelists when given a Royal Philatelic Society of London expert committee certificate in 1931. Subsequent certificates in 1980 and 1990 from Friedl and BPA confirm the original certificate’s findings.

The 4d Lake Taupo with inverted centre is listed in all major catalogues as follows:

Stanley Gibbons – SG322c (unpriced)
Scott – 113 var (not priced)
Campell Paterson – E12cz (NZ $250,000)
Yvert & Tellier – 118a

In comparison to the NZ$250,000 estimate for this unique stamp, Britain’s rarest stamp, a used Queen Victoria 1d red from plate 77 (one of nine documented) was recently offered for sale in Jersey for £650,000. While this may sound eye-watering for a small patch of paper, it is far from being the world’s most expensive stamp. This title goes to the famous 1856 British Guiana 1c magenta which was sold in 2021 to Stanley Gibbons for US $8.3 million. Also in 2021, an 1847 envelope bearing a Mauritius Post Office 1d red was sold for US $11.2 million.

In 2023 another famous inverted-centre-design stamp, a mint 24c USA Inverted Jenny – one of 100 known – was sold for US $2 million.

The Ministry of Culture & Heritage has agreed that the stamp may be exported from New Zealand if purchased by an overseas buyer.