FLOAT
The 1851 Spanish 2-reales printed in blue instead of red - the error of color, used, one of three known - the British Library's Tapling Collection example, not necessarily the mint copy priced by this constituent.

Spain 1851 '2 Reales' Error of Color

Maker
Spain (Isabella II)
Year
1851
Rank
74 of 100

Spain 1851 '2 Reales' Error of Color

Spain 1851 '2 Reales' Error of Color by Spain (Isabella II) (1851) is ranked 74 in the FLOAT 100 for Stamps. It sold for $23,200 on 1 January 1996. Spain's single rarest and most storied stamp — a color error created when a 2-reales die was mistakenly set in the 6-reales blue plate.

What is it, and why is it in the FLOAT 100?

Spain's single rarest and most storied stamp — a color error created when a 2-reales die was mistakenly set in the 6-reales blue plate.

Edifil 8, '2 reales' printed from the 6-reales blue stone (color error); mint

What is the best-sourced number for it?

Figure
$23,200
Kind
Realized at auction
Date
1 January 1996

A perfect mint single made $23,200 (1996) — the most defensible single-stamp auction figure. A fine copy sold privately for $450,000 (1974, Galeria Filatelica Barcelona); no recent public auction surfaced.

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.
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2026-08-08