Dan Carter, co-founder of Showpiece, with the One Cent Magenta stamp
(Picture: Showpiece)A new digital business spun out of rare stamp specialist Stanley Gibbons has attracted over a thousand investors in the first few weeks of operation.
Showpiece.com has sold £1 million-worth of ‘fractional ownership’ stakes in the One Cent Magenta stamp to more than 1,300 collectors in its first four weeks of operation.
Showpiece lets people buy a digital slice of rare stamps, similar to NFT investments. It has been offering collectors the chance to buy a slice of the One Cent Magenta, a rare piece dubbed the “Mona Lisa of stamps” that the company paid $8.3 million for earlier this year. Philatelists can buy an ownership stake for £100, with 80,000 slices on offer.
Investors who buy a stake in the One Cent Magenta are given a digital certificate that carried voting rights on what to do with the actual item. They also carry some economic rights on resale.
Collectors can buy more than one ownership stake and those who buy 100 will get a digital replica of the stamp. Anyone who spend £25,000 on stakes will get a private viewing of the actual stamp at Stanley Gibbons shop on The Strand in London.
The 165-year-old One Cent Magenta is the world’s most valuable stamp. It is the only remaining example of a Guyanese stamp issued in the 1850s and is the the only major postage stamp ever issued that is not represented in the British Royal Philatelic Collection. It is the world’s most valuable item by weight.
Dan Carter, co-founder of Showpiece, said the performance “goes to show how popular our fractional ownership model is globally and this has spurred us on to offer the second and third unique items imminently.”
Showpiece plans to branch out beyond stamps into other collectables in art, music, sport and more. The company wants to build an online marketplace allowing investors to trade their stakes in items.
Carter, 26, set up Showpiece in the summer with backing from investors including Direct Line and esure founder Sir Peter Wood.
