LONDON (voa) – A London auctioneer has sold a 162-year-old picture postcard, believed to be the oldest in the world, for the paltry sum of $45,000.
A Latvian collector purchased the hand-colored postcard on Friday from the London Stamp Exchange, where the card was offered for sale following its discovery last year by postal historian Edward Proud.
Experts from the British Philatelic Association determined that the one penny postcard predated the earliest known German, Austrian, and American cards created in the 1860s.
It is believed that Victorian playwright Theodore Hook purchased the postcard in 1840 and then mailed it to himself for his own amusement. The card depicts a humorous drawing of postal scribes seated around a large inkwell with pens in hand.
Although the auction hammer went down at a mere $38,500, commission and taxes added up to make the $45,000 item the world’s most expensive one penny postcard.
