A rare postage stamp of the British colony (or rather the province) of South Australia with a nominal value of 4 pence with a portrait of Queen Victoria was sold on February 7, 2014. A distinctive feature of this lot lies in the absence of an overprint. The first issue of the series was brought into circulation from 1860 to 1869. During 1868-1879, the same series was produced in perforated sheets and an overprint was placed on them. In particular, a black overprint of “3 pence” was made. However, a very small number of stamps of this issue appeared in circulation without the overprint, and they became the object of interest for many collectors. Since then, this is one of the rarest stamps of Australia. Only three clean specimens have been found (one of which is in the Royal collection) and ten canceled copies (of which only six are in personal philatelic collections). That is, in fact, only eight copies are available to collectors.
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