Blue Mauritius: The Hunt for the World's Most Valuable Stamps

By Helen Morgan

In September 1847 coloured squares of paper were stuck to envelopes and used to send out admission cards to a fancy-dress ball on the tropical island of Mauritius. No-one at the party would have guessed that the envelopes bearing these stamps would one day be worth more than a million dollars.

When a two pence 'Blue Mauritius' surfaced on the fledgling French stamp-collecting market in 1865 it gained instant celebrity. Then in 1903, when a perfect specimen, discovered in a childhood album, was bought at auction by the Prince of Wales, the Blue Mauritius gained super-star status.

Even now, the stamps of 'Post Office Mauritius' remain synonymous with fame, wealth and mystery. Helen Morgan tells the fascinating story of the most coveted scraps of paper in existence, from Mauritius' Port Louis to Bordeaux, India and Great Britain, Switzerland and Japan, into the fantasies and imagination of stamp collectors everywhere.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Atlantic Books
• Release date: Jun 4, 2015
• ISBN: 9781782397748

Helen Morgan

HELEN MORGAN trained as an art historian and archivist. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her Mauritian husband, Mike. Blue Mauritius is her first book.

Reviews for Blue Mauritius

[jon1lambert · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I found this a fascinating and engrossing history off these penny and twopenny stamps issued in 1847. The existence of the survivors is charted sale by sale and the mystery and possibilities of fact and fiction maintain the suspense. Questions still need to be answered. There is a really good bibliography - more like a literature review - at the end.