"Lafayette" Collection back to index

1849-1850 Ceres Issue
20 centimes bleu fonce tête-bêche

 tête-bêche, position 110, in original gum block of six, plate 1, positions 109-120

Provenance:
ex Burrus and King Farouk

References: 
Ceres #T8a, Yvert #8d

Census of unused in dark blue shade:
this is the only block in this shade
one pair

Production information:
The twenty centimes blue was to have replaced the twenty centimes black but was not issued. A total of 23.3 million were printed from five plates, including the first plate used for the black stamps, which contained tête-bêche clichés at positions 92, 110 and 148. Although about 100 thousand of the error pairs were printed, virtually all were destroyed by the Post Office in July, 1851. Examples survive in all three of the major shades (blue on yellowish, blue on bluish and dark blue).