An amazingly rare 1851 2c Blue Hawaiian Missionary stamp blew the competition away at Siegel's 2011 Rarities of the World auction on Saturday June 18.

The unique 150-year-old stamp is a philatelist's dream, as only 15 copies of it are known to exist, of which five are thought to be in museums.

Called Missionaries because they were the first postage stamps produced on Hawaii, and were sent by early settlers on the islands, they are highly valued by collectors. It is not surprising then that this one sold for $170,000.

Not many stamps are rarer than this Hawaiian 1851 2c Missionary

Not too far behind it however was the 1852 13c "H.I. & U.S. Postage" Missionary stamp, which smashed its estimated selling price of $35,000 to make $110,000.

Made one year after the 2c Missionary in the sale, this copy is one of just two sound examples recorded. In all 52 of the stamps were produced, with a large number of them in museum collections, and having been repaired.

Despite these two rare stamps being the only ones to break the $100,000 mark, a number of other lots sold for significant amounts.

This rare 13c stamp sold for triple its estimate at $85,000

An 1851 13c Blue Crocker Type I, more than tripled its estimate of $28,000 to sell for $85,000.

The rare used postage stamp, the appearance of which has actually been enhanced by a red sugar cane cancel mark, would look great in any philatelist's collection, as well as making a superb investment. Not many other items could easily triple their estimate like this stamp did.

Other notable sales include that of a 2c Center Inverted Pan-American train stamp, one of the finest available of its type, which beat its estimate of $55,000 by $10,000, and a brilliant pane of 70 excellent condition 1913 10c orange Panama-Pacific stamps, which sold for $57,000.

Why have one rare stamp, when you can have 70 instead?

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