Celebrating a princely rarity

A new stamp designed by Jaksa Vlahovic and released for Serbian Stamp Day recreates a rare 150-yearold stamp.

With a nominal value of one Serbian penny when it was released in 1872, the Milanče tête-bêche is a world-class rarity. There is only a single example in existence and the last time it was sold at auction it was for 70,000 Swiss Francs.

Stamps with the image of Prince Milan – the ‘Milančići’ – were published between 1869 and 1880.

The existence of this pair in tête-bêche form was pointed out by the famous Serbian philatelists Evžen Deroko and Mirko Rašić. Although they speculated on the exact circumstances of how this particular pair came to be formulated, the accepted view is that it happened by incorrectly inserting clichés during the printing process. The error was spotted and corrected, but one pair remained in existence.

The Milanče tête-bêche was originally part of the renowned Ferrary collection. The French stamp collector Philipp Ferrari de la Renotière (18501917), who assembled perhaps the most extensive worldwide collection of rare stamps in existence, was a personal friend and guest of Prince Milan. It’s believed that the Prince, knowing Ferrari’s passion for philately, gave him this rare stamp as a gift. Nothing was known about the stamp until the publication of Mirko Rašić’s book The Postal History and Postage Stamps of Serbia in 1979, which brought it to the attention of a wider public.

The motif on the First Day Cover comes from a letter in the collection of Predrag Antíc, Belgrade, and shows a block of fourteen and two strips of three of the 1 para yellow, perforated, on a cover sent by Slivjanic to Paracín – the largest known multiple of the original design on a cover.

Issue date: 13 May 2022, www.posta.rs