Rare Indian Gandhi stamp sold for £500, 000

A set of rare four ten-rupee stamps of 1948 featuring the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi has been sold for £500, 000 ( $598, 000) by British dealer Stanley Gibbons.

The unique strip of four ten-rupee stamps is considered the most important and desirable item of post-Indian independence philately, Jersey, according to UK –based dealer Stanley Gibbons. Their shares rose 7 per cent in London.

The purple-brown stamps are emblazoned with the word “SERVICE” and were issued to the governor-general’s secretariat for official use. Only single stamps of this kind have previously been recorded to exist in private collections.

The purchase by an Australian collector is the latest in a number of transactions highlighting the strength of the market for rare Indian stamps. Stanley Gibbons sold a single Gandhi ten-rupee stamp to a client in Uruguay last year for £160,000. In March, an Indian stamp where the head of the young Queen Victoria had been inverted in error sold for £110, 000.