Rare German Postage Stamps: Values and Record Sales

The rarest German postage stamp is the Baden 9 Kreuzer error of 1851, and the most valuable German stamps are almost all early issues of the German states or genuine errors. These results were compiled by findyourstampsvalue.com from auction records, with the house and date for each; dollar figures are as that site gives them.

• Baden 9 Kreuzer error, 1851, on cover: about $1.73 million, Heinrich Koehler, June 2019
• Baden 9 Kreuzer error, 1851, unused: $1,545,000, David Feldman, April 2008
• Oldenburg 1859 1/3 Groschen black on green, imperforate: $389,183, Heinrich Koehler, June 2019
• Audrey Hepburn, 2001: $176,000, Christoph Gaertner, June 2017
• 2016 Christmas stamp with a spelling error, sheet of 10: $112,394, Felzmann, 2017
• 1920 2-mark Germania with quatrefoil watermark: $65,500, Aix-Phila, November 2015
• 1905 5-mark Kaiser Wilhelm II with inverted centre: $60,790, Felzmann, March 2016
• Bavaria 1849 1 Kreuzer black: $44,957, Heinrich Koehler, May 2015
• Saxony 1850 3 Pfennige red: $30,300, Christoph Gaertner, October 2015
• 1980 Olympic Games semi-postal, withdrawn after the Moscow boycott: $22,460, Christoph Gaertner, June 2017
• Baden 3 Kreuzer in a pale rose shade, without perforations: $19,300, Christoph Gaertner, 2015

These are the best examples of their kind. An ordinary used copy of the same issue can sell for a small fraction of these amounts.

The Baden 9 Kreuzer error is a colour error. Sheets of the 9 Kreuzer value, which should have been pink, were printed in the green meant for the 6 Kreuzer (Wikipedia). The stamps went on sale on May 1, 1851, and the error went unnoticed for 44 years.

Only four are known: three used and one unused. Their sale history, from Wikipedia:

• 1985: a used copy on a letter sold for 2,645,000 Deutsche Mark, then the highest price ever paid for a single stamp
• 1997: the unused copy sold for US$603,750
• April 3, 2008: the unused copy sold again at David Feldman for EUR 1,314,500

A green 9 Kreuzer Baden stamp turning up in an old album is far more likely to be a forgery or a colour-changed stamp than the real error. Anything that looks like it needs a certificate from a recognised expert before it is worth more than a curiosity.

Some are; the first one is the famous one. The 1 Kreuzer black (Schwarzer Einser) was issued on November 1, 1849, the first postage stamp of Bavaria and the first anywhere in what is now Germany. About 832,500 were printed on handmade paper. It was withdrawn from sale in October 1851 but stayed valid for postage until August 31, 1864 (Wikipedia).

Prices depend heavily on condition. Wikipedia cites the 2002 Scott catalogue at about $600 unused and about $1,600 used, while an exceptional example reached $44,957 at Heinrich Koehler in May 2015 (findyourstampsvalue.com). The designer's and engraver's initials are hidden in the pattern as an anti-forgery measure (Wikipedia), which is one of the checks an expert makes.

Later Bavarian stamps followed the same design layout (Wikipedia). As with the other Old German States, condition and whether a stamp is still on its original cover make most of the difference in price.

Dates from Wikipedia's history of German postage stamps; the notes on value follow from the sales on this page.

• Old German States, 1849 to 1867. Bavaria issued first in 1849, then Hanover and Saxony (1850), Baden (1851), Oldenburg and Brunswick (1852), Bremen (1855), Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1856), Lübeck and Hamburg (1859) and Heligoland (1867). Most of the high prices above come from this period.
• North German Postal District, 1868, and the Reichspost, which began on May 4, 1871 and issued its first stamps on January 1, 1872.
• Germania series, 1900 to 1922, the longest-running series in German philately. Common as a whole; watermark and printing varieties such as the 1920 quatrefoil watermark are where the money is.
• 1923 hyperinflation, with stamps up to 50 billion marks. Printed in enormous quantities.
• Third Reich, 1933 to 1945. Field post stamps from 1942 and the inscription Grossdeutsches Reich late in the war. Mostly common.
• After 1945: occupation zone issues, then the Deutsche Bundespost in the West and the Deutsche Post of the GDR in the East until reunification in 1990. A few unissued or withdrawn modern stamps, such as the 2001 Audrey Hepburn and the 1980 Olympic semi-postal, are rarities.

Between the great rarities and the common stamps there is a middle market decided by small differences. These are realised prices from one sale, the William L. Lewis Germany Collection at Shreves Philatelic Galleries, Sale 73, October 1, 2005 (StampAuctionNetwork). They are old, and useful for the pattern rather than as current prices:

• 1921 surcharge on 3 pf dark brown, never hinged: Type I $120, Type II $400. Same stamp, different type, more than three times the price.
• 1924 air post set with sideways (lying) watermark: $110
• 1930 South America Flight Zeppelin stamps: $250; a similar pair on a flown cover $475
• 1931 Polar Flight Zeppelin set: $550
• 1922 20-mark with double green underprint error, never hinged: $1,700
• Inflation-period collection of 400+ stamps: $3,000
• Mint Empire and Third Reich collection of 1,300+ stamps: $8,500

The lesson is that the catalogue number alone does not set the price; the type, watermark position and printing detail do. That is why German specialists work from the Michel catalogue, which separates these varieties.

Usually very little. The 1923 inflation stamps, with values that climbed to 50 billion marks (Wikipedia), were produced in enormous quantities because prices changed faster than new stamps could be designed. By November 1923 one US dollar was worth about 4.2 trillion marks (Wikipedia), which explains the numbers on the stamps and why so many survive. Our rare stamps of the world page covers this period and its common material.

We found no dated public sale of a single common million-mark stamp to quote. What does carry value from the period is narrower: printing errors (the 1922 20-mark double underprint error above made $1,700 in 2005), type varieties, and covers whose postage matches the rate on the day they were posted.

• Place it in time. The currency is the quickest clue: kreuzer points to the southern states such as Baden and Bavaria, groschen to the north, and a mark value in the millions or billions to 1923.
• Find the catalogue number, ideally in Michel, then check the watermark and perforation, because varieties decide price. Our guide to perforations and watermarks shows how.
• Treat any apparent rarity as a copy until proven. Classic stamps are routinely forged, as our rare stamps of the world page explains. For anything that might be worth hundreds, get a certificate before you buy or sell; see our guide to spotting a fake stamp.
• Keep covers intact. A stamp on its original envelope can be worth more than the stamp alone, as the flown Zeppelin cover above suggests.

PhilLens reads the design, country and perforation from a photo and suggests the likely issue, and there are free scans every day, which is a quick way to sort a pile of German stamps before you spend time on the few that deserve it.

Research and drafting were assisted by AI, and every price, date and number was checked against the sources listed below. Auction results name the house and date. The findyourstampsvalue.com figures are that site's compilation of auction results in US dollars; the Shreves results are realised prices from a 2005 sale and are given for comparison, not as current market prices.