Play treasure master

Chapter 246 Black Queen

After Yu Yao accepted 3000 yuan, the male store owner not only bought him the 1991 edition, but also gave him two more old magazines for collection.

After the payment was settled, the man sent Yu Yao out of the store.Yu Yao stood at the door of the store, and suddenly stopped, "Boss, you shouldn't ask a question, let me explain it clearly, I think the pen writing on the kraft paper pasted inside the book cover is very beautiful, so I want to ask Where did you get this edition of Selected Works of Mao?"

The source of the goods really shouldn't be asked, but there is a difference between old books and antiques after all, and Yu Yao has already bought them, so it can be regarded as an afterthought chat, the shopkeeper can talk if he wants to, and he doesn't mind too much if he doesn't want to.

"I think you are young, but you seem to be a learned man." The man nodded, "It's okay to tell you."

Now that he was outside the store, Yu Yao offered the man a cigarette, and the man happily accepted it, "What a coincidence, you have two versions in your hand, one from 1948, one from 1991, and those from the Qing Dynasty. The bulk books were collected from the same household. Nearby, there is an old building to be demolished, and the residents are an old couple, saying that these books were left by the old man’s father.”

"Oh. Listen to that, they have a lot of family books!"

"They have quite a lot of books! They sold some of them when they were about to move, but the rest are even better. I think there are still Ming Dynasty printed books! But I'm greedy, and they don't sell them! Among the old books, Only these bound books of the Qing Dynasty were sold to me, and the price was still discussed separately. The other bound books were kicked out."

"One kick, there is this 1948 edition of "Selected Works of Mao" in it, and you have earned it!"

The man hecked twice, "The money we earn is also eye-catching money, isn't it?"

Yu Yao didn't talk any more and just left.Knowing these is almost enough, which shows that the possibility of hiding things in the kraft paper is still very high!

Because their family has ancient books from the Ming and Qing dynasties, the old man’s father passed away in 1995 after that special period, but he preserved so many ancient books, he must be good at preserving them.

If there was something hidden in the kraft paper, then the old man must not have known about it, otherwise he would not have sold the book.As for why he didn't know, whether his father forgot to tell him, it's impossible to guess.

Of course, it's just a speculation that the possibility is very high, and there are other possibilities, including this book and the possibility that the old man's father got it like this.

Anyway, Yu Yao had already made up his mind to take it apart and have a look.

Before returning to the hotel, Yu Yao went to a nearby supermarket to buy tools such as razor blades, and took them apart, trying not to damage the book.

After closing the door, Yu Yao sat in front of the table in the room, starting from the kraft paper on the inside of the cover, and carefully scratched through the gaps with a blade.

This piece of kraft paper is all pasted on the inside of the cover, not only the four sides are glued; fortunately, it has been used for a long time, and it is not too difficult to get it.

Yu Yao finally peeled off a piece of kraft paper completely, only a few places were slightly damaged inside the book cover.

As a result, there was nothing in it!

It is the paper quality that should be on the inside of the cover.

However, since we have started, we must also remove the kraft paper on the inside of the back cover to take a look.If not, then there is no other way, I bought this book at the market price, fortunately it is the real thing.

After peeling off the kraft paper on the back cover, Yu Yao's eyes lit up!
The inside of the back cover is also the same as the inside of the front cover, which is normal; however, a small round piece of thin white paper is pasted in the center of the kraft paper.It's as thin as carbon paper, but it's colorless.

This small piece of thin white paper has a diameter of seven or eight centimeters, although the back is glued on the inside of the back cover as a whole like kraft paper.But on the inner side of the white paper, only the edge is pasted on the kraft paper. Because the middle is transparent, not only can it be seen that it is not pasted, but it also looks like a postage stamp inside!
No wonder it feels smooth!Such thick kraft paper is completely coated with glue and flattened. The thin stamps and pieces of paper must be impossible to touch!

Yu Yao gently picked out the white paper, the stamps inside were intact!

Toothless, black, 12p face value, with Queen Victoria's head on the pattern.

Black Queen!
Canada's Queen Victoria portrait stamp, issued in 1851, is called the Black Queen because the background color is black.The world's first postage stamp, the "Penny Black" issued by the United Kingdom in 1840, is also named because the background color is black.

Yu Yao doesn't collect stamps, but he still knows about the Black Queen stamps, because they are very famous and expensive.

The reason why it is expensive is of course because it is rare.

On June 1851, 6, Canada issued a black 14p stamp featuring the head of Queen Victoria, which was derived from the work of the painter Chalon depicting the Queen.However, the original painting is not a portrait of the Queen, but the Queen's visit to the British House of Commons in the summer of 12.

At that time, the Black Queen stamps were printed, and a full sheet was 255. At the beginning, 51000 full sheets were printed, that is, [-].

If this figure was issued, the Black Queen stamps would not be so expensive.

Although so many pieces were printed, only more than 1400 pieces were sold in the long three years since then.

There are three reasons.

First, this was the first time that stamps were printed on ruled paper, and the post office and users were dissatisfied because the paper was inferior and it was difficult to stick to the envelope.

Second, 12 pence is a high face value, and it is only used for long-distance letters.

Third, the Black Queen stamps are only sold in less than twenty post offices, and the scope is limited.

Three years later, the Black Queen stamps were announced to be discontinued, and the nearly [-] stamps that were not on sale were all destroyed.

Only more than 1000 stamps have flowed to the market, and more than 100 years have passed. Although it is impossible to have exact statistics on its stock, it is conceivable.

Some people estimate that the number of surviving pieces is about 150 pieces, and seven real envelopes have also been found.

Among the 150 or so Black Queen stamps, there must be a small number of them that have not been used for posting letters; among these few, there must be a small number of well-preserved, undamaged ones.

Therefore, a few years ago, there was a black queen stamp with excellent quality, which was sold at an auction in New York for a high price of nearly 50 US dollars, equivalent to more than RMB 300 million.

Yu Yao also didn't expect that there would be a stamp hidden in it, and he didn't have tweezers, so he had to carefully pick it up with a tissue. After checking and admiring it, he folded it with a post-it note in the room, and finally put it in the book.

However, this Black Queen, strictly speaking, is not considered to be in excellent condition, everything else is very good, but there is a tiny yellow spot on the back glue.

This is not a big problem, even if there is a discount, referring to the auction price in New York a few years ago, if you take a fraction, 300 million is still worth it.

Spent three thousand and earned three million.

A thousandfold profit.Of course it's a big leak.

And this omission, in fact, has nothing to do with eyesight, it is purely "whimsical" based on "experience".

As soon as Yu Yao packed up, the phone rang, and when he picked it up, it was Lin Fengcao calling.

(End of this chapter)