Lot 30171 – 1874, 2 sen chrome-yellow syll. i (1), unused mounted mint

1874, 2 sen chrome-yellow, native wove paper, syllabic i (1), very fresh featuring a vibrant colour, well centred, unused without gum. Cert. Philatelic Federation of Japan signed Dr. Sawa (2012).

An extremely rare plate with just about fifteen unused examples known. A highly desirable gem of Japanese philately. According to the Yamazaki Yoshiyuki (Narumi 2018) plating book on (page 29), twelve examples are in private hands. This is the example used to illustrate this stamp in the JSCA catalogue (2023). (JSCA ¥4,800,000; Michel 20y €46,000).

Note: This major Japanese rarity on native paper exists on native wove- and native laid paper, with the former being by far the rarest and priced in the Ichida handbook at 43% more than the stamp printed on laid paper. The Michel catalogues the stamp on the most common paper at €46,000 which, when compared to the 43% premium for wove paper in the Ichida catalogue, would give an estimated Michel value of €65,780.