Rare Stamp of Audrey Hepburn to Auction

A rare stamp depicting film star Audrey Hepburn is up for auction in Berlin, where its minimum bid price will be thirty thousand euros. Only five copies of the stamp exist, as the original fourteen million printed in 2001 were destroyed by the government before being put into use by the Deutsche Post. The stamps were abandoned when Hepburn's son refused to release the image for the stamps to go into production on the grounds that the stamp depicted his mother smoking.

An unknown employee of the the Deutsche Post is thought to have swiped a few batches at the time, who then used the stamps to send regular mail.

The collector who is auctioning off the stamp has chosen to remain anonymous. He claims this is because he cannot recall which of his friends gave him the stamp and is worried the original owner might pop up when the sale of the stamp is publicized.

Other faces on the series included Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe, and Greta Garbo.