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A new world record has been for the sale of a postage stamp. Not just any old stamp, but a one-of-a-kind. The 1856 British Guiana One-Cent Magenta was at an auction in New York for $9.48 million. The auction house, Sotheby's, it was the fourth time the stamp has the record. Sotheby's vice chairman David Redden said the record would never be broken again, unless the same stamp up for auction again. He reporters: "That price will hard to beat, and likely won't be unless the British Guiana itself comes up for sale again in the future." David Beech, a former curator of stamps at the British Library, the sale to the artwork the 'Mona Lisa'.

The stamp was by an anonymous buyer. It was previously by John E. du Pont, an heir to the du Pont chemical fortune. He is currently in prison for fatally an Olympic champion wrestler. It was first in 1873 by a 12-year-old stamp collector. He sold it a few years later for six shillings - about $50 in today's money and a tidy sum back then. It has since a dozen owners, including the French government. Mr Redden at how after the stamp has . He said: "This is the most valuable item in the world by weight. It's just a tiny piece of paper." He he was happy that the stamp had been by a collector who would cherish it, and not by an investor.