Great Britain 1882 £5 orange Plate 1, SG137.
A superb unmounted mint, with full original gum, top corner marginal example lettered 'AA'.
An absolute stunner with deep colour in the "red-orange" shade. Characteristic of the 7th and final 1900 printing. Very rarely seen in this quality and certainly an example for the philatelic connoisseur.
SG Catalogue Value: £10,000.
Britain's Boldest Stamp
A chance to own the finest qualiy example you could ever hope for of Britain's boldest stamp design and particularly scarce in this highest condition grade.
Because of the high face value, there was no postal need for this stamp issue.
It was first introduced as a Telegraphs stamp to account for payment of bulk telegrams and for those of individual high cost.
Telegraphs were withdrawn in 1881 and the same plate design was adapted for use as a postage stamp, but postal packages that warranted a £5 stamp were obviously going to be very few and far between.
That is why so few of these stamps exist. Dr. John Horsey’s book, aptly entitled "The £5 Orange", analysed 3,534 examples of the £5 Orange and he calculated that to be nearly half of the £5 Oranges that still exist.
