Estimated ranges from catalog & auction data — condition-dependent, not a professional appraisal. Treat every figure below as a starting point and confirm with a qualified expert before buying or selling.
Treskilling Yellow value: what it's worth
Value depends heavily on condition, so the figures below are given as ranges by tier rather than a single price. Unique — only one example known to exist.
| Condition | Estimated value |
|---|---|
| The unique example — recorded public auction results (1984 and 1996) SFr 977,500 (David Feldman, 1984 — then a world record for any stamp) and SFr 2,880,000, about US$2.3 million (David Feldman, 1996 — a record again). A 1990 private sale made over US$1 million. The 22 May 2010 Feldman sale in Geneva and the 2013 private sale to Count Gustaf Douglas were undisclosed; the auctioneer stated the 2010 result was at least the 1996 record level. Only public, disclosed figures are shown as the range. | CHF 977,500 – CHF 2,880,000 |
Values last checked: July 4, 2026.
Record / notable sale SFr 2,880,000 (about US$2.3 million) — the last publicly disclosed price, a world record at the time. The 2010 Geneva sale (buyer: an international consortium) and the 2013 private sale to Count Gustaf Douglas were undisclosed, with the 2010 price stated to be at least the 1996 level. — 1996 (last disclosed); 22 May 2010 and May 2013 (undisclosed), David Feldman SA, Geneva.
Rarity & how many exist
Unique — only one example known to exist.
- Print run: Unknown — most likely a single three-skilling cliché mistakenly inserted into the eight-skilling printing plate
- Surviving examples: One — no second example has surfaced since the discovery in 1886
Catalog numbers
- Scott: Scott 1a (colour error of Scott 1)
- Stanley Gibbons: n/a (Swedish issue; the Facit catalogue is the Scandinavian standard)
History
Sweden's first stamps (1855) printed the three-skilling banco in blue-green and the eight-skilling in yellowish orange. The likeliest explanation for the error is that a damaged stereotype in the 10×10 eight-skilling plate was mistakenly replaced with a three-skilling cliché. The only known example — cancelled at Nya Kopparberget on 13 July 1857 — was found in 1886 by schoolboy Georg Wilhelm Backman while going through covers in his grandmother's attic. It passed through Philipp von Ferrary's collection and King Carol II of Romania, survived a 1970s forgery accusation by the Swedish Postal Museum (overturned by two independent expert commissions), and set world-record prices at auction in 1984, 1990 and 1996. Its sales since then have been private and undisclosed; since May 2013 it has been owned by Swedish count Gustaf Douglas.
How to tell if yours is the valuable one
- Only one example is known, with a fully documented provenance chain since 1886, and it is in a known private collection. Assume any other purported Treskilling Yellow is a fake, a colour-changed stamp or a reproduction.
- The normal three-skilling banco is BLUE-GREEN. A yellowish stamp of this design in a collection is almost always a sun-faded or chemically discoloured green stamp — or simply the ordinary eight-skilling, which was legitimately printed in yellow-orange.
- Check the denomination text: the rarity reads 'TRE SKILL. Bco.' in a yellow-orange frame. An eight-skilling reads 'ÅTTA SKILL. Bco.' in nearly the same colour — the common, correct stamp.
- The stamp's authenticity was itself disputed in the 1970s (the Swedish Postal Museum called it a forgery) and confirmed by two independent expert commissions — a reminder that only top-level expertising settles claims at this altitude.
- The genuine example carries a Nya Kopparberget cancel dated 13 July 1857; any claimed second example would need to survive comparison against the published reference documentation.
Quick identification tips
- Yellow-orange Swedish 1855 'skilling banco' stamp? Read the value: 'ÅTTA' (8) = normal and correct; 'TRE' (3) = check for fading/forgery first, because only one genuine yellow TRE has ever been found.
- Ordinary 1855-58 skilling banco stamps in their correct colours are themselves classic collectibles — have any of them valued rather than assuming worthlessness.
Related stamps
- British Guiana 1c value — Unique — only one example known to exist.
- Blue Mauritius value — Among the rarest stamps in the world — only ~26-27 known.
- Inverted Jenny value — Extremely rare — only 100 ever existed.
See also our guide to what your stamp is worth and how stamp values really work.
Sources
Every figure on this page traces to a published reference or recorded sale: