The dramatic tale of the world’s most sought-after stamp and the passionate story of the first stamp hunters

In September 1847, Mauritius’s very first stamps were produced to send out admission cards to a costume ball. No one at the party would have guessed that the envelopes bearing these stamps would one day be worth more than a million dollars each.

When a two-pence “Blue Mauritius” surfaced on the fledgling French stamp collecting market in 1865, collectors were driven to bag the stamps as if they were big game. Then in 1903, a perfect specimen was discovered in a childhood album; the Prince of Wales bought the stamp at auction, and the Blue Mauritius gained super-star status. Exhilarating and expansive, Blue Mauritius tells the story of the most coveted and valuable stamps in history as they traveled around the globe and entered the hearts and imaginations of collectors everywhere.