Commandment of the Philatelist: Look and don't breathe! Part II

Part two of article about the postal stamps.

A striking example — the so-called "Levanevsky with an overprint", a USSR postage stamp of 1935 with a portrait of a famous pilot and an overprint. Stamp was released in honor of an ambitious flight attempt from Moscow to San Francisco via the North Pole. The stamp came out in a limited edition — while a small part of it contained a mistake: the overprint was reversed, and "San Francisco" was written with a small letter "f". Only 10 "mistaken" stamps were issued. For the philatelists, such a "mistake" automatically means the appearance of a new rare type — and it takes off in price immediately.

Father’s collection contains an ordinary Levanevsky. For today this marka costs "only" 80 000 rubles. Here is her certificate of authenticity from the famous philately house Raybaudi, Roma. Here it is written about stamp’s ideal condition — watermarks, perforation is clear, and the layer of glue on the back is perfect.

Compare its value with the price of a rare variety: in 2008, Levanevsky stamp "with an error" was sold at an auction in New York for half a million dollars. During the Second World War, as a sign of friendship between the USSR and the United States, an example of «wrong» Levanevsky was given to the US president, a passionate philatelist, on Stalin's order. This is a historical fact, described in a variety of sources. According to the memoirs of the participants, President Roosevelt trembled when he received such a priceless gift for the collector.

«Hello, Winston? I’ve got a stamp I’m sure you haven’t!»