--- description: The 'World's Rarest Stamp' shattered the previous record of $2.3 million with its interesting back story. title: World's Rarest Stamp Sets Auction Record image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Culture](/tag/culture/) ## Culture Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # World's Rarest Stamp Sets Auction Record by [TIME Video](/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 18, 2014 8:45 PM CUT by [TIME Video](/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 18, 2014 8:45 PM CUT A tiny piece of paper with adhesive on the back just sold for $9.5 million. Sotheby’s sold the British Guiana stamp to an anonymous donor over the phone Tuesday. The deal broke the previous stamp-selling record, held by an 1885 Swedish stamp, by more than $7 million. What makes this stamp so special? It’s the only copy of the British Guiana One-Cent known to exist, but also its previous owner, John E. du Pont, was famous for murdering an Olympic wrestler. Still, that’s a lot of paper for such a little piece of paper. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2896879/worlds-rarest-stamp/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2896879/worlds-rarest-stamp/"},"headline":"World's Rarest Stamp Sets Auction Record","datePublished":"2014-06-18T20:45:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:29:47.930Z","description":"Get ready to freak out stamp collectors (or, you know, get as excited as you ever get).","url":"https://time.com/2896879/worlds-rarest-stamp/","keywords":["Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Video","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-video/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/culture/","name":"Culture"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2896879/worlds-rarest-stamp/","name":"World's Rarest Stamp Sets Auction Record"}}]}] ```