HONG KONG.- Spink held the auction of Fine Stamps and Covers of Hong Kong and China today (13 January 2013). The top-selling lot was a unique error stamp of $2 Hall of Classics with inverted centre used on cover which sold for HK$4,800,000/US$615,385 after spirited bidding. This exceedingly rare cover is the only example of this famous $2 error stamp used on cover in the world.

In 1915, Sinkiang overprinted the current stamps to avoid currency speculation. In one position on the $1 stamp the second and third characters of the overprint were placed the wrong way around and a few sheets were released before this mistake was discovered. This particular block from the Colonel Valentine Burkhardt Collection realized HK$2,640,000/US$338,462.

Another star lot was a very rare $2 Hall of Classics with Inverted Centre from the Colonel Valentine Burkhardt Collection which fetched HK$1,200,000/US$153,846. Only one sheet of 50 examples was released and the present lot is an imprint single of position 42 of this error sheet.

An album of Large Dragon issues of Shanghai formed by Colonel Valentine Burkhard achieved a strong price of HK$960,000/US$123,077 in the sale. Originally issued in 1865, these are the first postage stamps issued in China. With much dedication, Colonel Valentine Burkhard created a highly desirable collection of this issue.