Lot 30285 – 1875, 1 sen brown syll. to (7), pos. 33, unused mounted. THE UNUSED PLATE VARIETY OF 1 SEN SYLLABIC 7

THE UNUSED PLATE VARIETY OF 1 SEN SYLLABIC 71875, 1 sen brown, syllabic 7 (to), wove western paper, position 40 possessing typical positional pinhole in bottom left corner (type D), exhibiting the plate variety consisting in “left panel with kanji sen featuring lower stroke missing at right”, with original gum lightly hinged. Very fine. Cert. Florian Eichhorn BPP (2023).One of just five to seven examples recorded of this syllabic in unused condition -including one in a museum. This stamp, in contrast to the others, exhibits a prominent plate variety (JSCA 42 (7)v-x-40); the JSCA catalogue indicates this variety to be featured in position 40, confirmed by this example with type D pinhole position at lower left, being only possible in the bottom right corner of the sheet. (JSCA ¥4,500,000 without the plate variety and unpriced “-” with the plate flaw; Michel €40,000+).Our census of 5 out of 7 known (according to Yamada Yuji seven are recorded, but we could only confirm five): -The example presented here-Centred to left, illustrated by Dr. Ichida in his 1965 handbook on page 281, in the Yigal Nathaniel collection (ex Ollerstad -“Swedish Sailor Stamp”-, Dr. Ichida and Shirai)-Centred to bottom, thinned and left corner defective, in the Ota Katsumi collection (ex Woodward)-Centred to left, in the Kanai collection (The Philatelic Culture Museum), presumably being the other “Swedish Sailor Stamp” which formed the pair (together with the above-mentioned example in the Nathaniel collection), in the Bertil Ollerstad collection-Centred to right, sheet margin at right, illustrated in the vol. 2 of “Gallery of Japanese Stamps”, ex Fukuhara