They were engraved and printed by Joseph Barnard a local engraver and printer, in Mauritius. He unknowingly printed ‘Post Office’ on the stamps instead of the correct ‘Post Paid’ inscription. The stamps, portraying the British monarch, Queen Victoria, were issued in time for use by Lady Gomm on invitations to a ball held in September 1847. Lady Gomm was the wife of Mauritius Lieutenant Governor W. Maynard Gomm.

Only 500 of each value were issued, and the young French boy was holding a cover franked with two of the stamps – singles of each value. The cover was addressed to ‘Messieurs Ducan & Lurguie’ in Bordeaux and Paris in October 1847.

The boy knowing that his find was worth a lot of money took his discovery to a stamp dealer in Paris, a Mr. Lemaire. The Dealer realizing the value of this cover purchased it from the boy for about 40,000 francs. The cover was later acquired by French collector Brunet de l’Argentiere.

In 1922 Arthur Hind purchased this rarity. It was sold to Maurice Burrus during the H.R. Harmer auction of the Hind collection in London in 1934. Raymond H. Weill Company purchased the cover for $78,400 during the 1963 Robson Lowe auction in London. It changed hands once again when it was purchased by Hiroyuki Kanai in 1970 to add to his remarkable Mauritius collection.

Charles Howard, a collector, was wandering through an Indian marketplace in 1897 when he discovered another cover, this one bearing two copies of the 1 penny Post Office Mauritius. The cover had been sent from Mauritius to Bombay in 1850.

It was purchased by George H. Worthington in 1906 and sold to Alfred F. Lichtenstein in 1917. Lichtenstein’s daughter, Louise Boyd Dale, obtained this rarity at the time of her father’s death. A price of $380,000 was paid for the cover by the Raymond H. Weill Company during the H.R. Harmer auction on October 21, 1968.

An unused 2 pence was purchased by the Prince of Wales (who later became King George V) in 1904; it is now in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace. Another unused 2 pence was sold at a Hamburg auction in 1972 for approximately $60,000. The total number of copies of both stamps believed to exist is estimated at 30.

- Mrs. Nagalakshmi Tadakaluri, Philatelist.

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