150 years of Serbian Philately Rarity: Milanče Tête-bêche
Issuance of postage stamps with the image of Prince Milan – the popular ”Milančići”, published in the period 1869/1880, certainly represent the most interesting era of Serbian philately. However, the newspaper stamp of this edition from 1872, whose nominal value is 1 Serbian penny, gave Serbian classical philately a rarity of world proportions: ”Milanče” in tête-bêche form.
The most famous Serbian philatelists, Evžen Deroko and Mirko Rašić, in their manuals, pointed out the existence of this pair in tête-bêche form. The exact circumstances that led to the formation of this pair can be speculated, but the most probable, accepted version is that this feature came about by incorrectly inserting clichés during printing. The error was soon discovered and corrected, but one copy was still preserved.
This rarity was first part of the famous Ferrary’s collection (Philipp la Renotière von Ferrary 1850–1917), which was dominated by world-class rarities. Due to the circumstances in Serbia, Ferrary almost lost his life, and later, as a sign of gratitude, he built a school building in Pirot and became a frequent guest in the kingdom and a personal friend of the King Milan. King himself has most likely gifted him with this rarity, knowing that Ferrary was a passionate philatelist. After it was sold at auction in the 1920s, nothing was known about this tête-bêche until the publication of Mirko Rašić’s book, when it was first presented to a wider audience.
