Japan 1871 Dragon 500 Mon (inverted centre)
- Maker
- Empire of Japan
- Year
- 1871
- Rank
- 57 of 100
Japan 1871 Dragon 500 Mon (inverted centre)
Japan 1871 Dragon 500 Mon (inverted centre) by Empire of Japan (1871) is ranked 57 in the FLOAT 100 for Stamps. It sold for $5,800,000 on 3 June 2023. Japan's first stamps; the 500-mon inverted-vignette is the single greatest Japanese philatelic rarity.
What is it, and why is it in the FLOAT 100?
Japan's first stamps; the 500-mon inverted-vignette is the single greatest Japanese philatelic rarity.
500-mon greyish yellow-green, plate 1 pos. 8, center inverted; Japan's first issue; the legendary inverted-center rarity
What is the best-sourced number for it?
- Figure
- $5,800,000
- Kind
- Realized at auction
- Date
- 3 June 2023
David Feldman, Geneva, 3 June 2023: EUR 5.4M (~$5.8M incl. 23% premium) — then 3rd-highest price ever for a single philatelic item. NOTE: this is the inverted-center ERROR; normal 500-mon Dragons are far cheaper.
This is a realized sale. Somebody paid it. Source.
How this is made
- The figure
- One reference price, taken from a named public source and shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. A market asking price and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- Why no grade ladder
- Most FLOAT 100 entries are individual objects. There is one of this, so there is no population and no spread across grades to show.
- Archive
- 2026-08-08