The Whole Country is Red - Rare Stamp

The Whole Country is Red

Estimated value: US$474,197

The stamp that goes by the name of The Whole Country is Red, issued in 1968 during the Cultural Revolution, is a famous stamp with error printing. The stamp features a red map of China imprinted with the golden words "The Whole Country is Red", plus a picture of a worker, a farmer and a soldier holding the "Selected Works of Chairman Mao." The face value of the stamp is 8 fen (1 US cent).

The stamp was only issued for less than half day. An editor of SinoMaps Press found that the map on the stamp was not accurate and reported it to the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications. As a result, all Chinese post offices had to stop selling the stamp and return all the copies. Only a small quantity of the stamp went to private collections.

A large version of the stamp, two times bigger than the original one, was auctioned off for 3.68 million HK dollars (US$474,197) in Hong Kong in 2009, setting a new record for the price of a single stamp auctioned off in China. On the same occasion, 6 normal pieces of the stamp were auctioned off for a total of 2.93 million HK dollars (US$377,482).