GB dealer prices being asked for the recent missing £ sign error on the £2.00 high value Machin definitive - first issued on July 1, 2003 - have almost doubled in the past five weeks with prices being asked for the cylinder block of six up from £90 to £175 and prices for a horizontal pair up to £135 from £75.
As yet it's unclear as to when, and at which level, the price will settle down and the Royal Mail's Director of Stamps and Collectibles, Gavin Macrae, admitted: 'Those who were lucky enough to buy them will have a nicely maturing investment'.
A cylinder block of six that would initially have been £12 at face value has rocketed upwards by 1400% to £175 in under four months, whilst the £4 value of the pairs has shot up by around 3300% in the same time period to £135.
Macrae also revealed that the error was withdrawn due to fears that it's '2.00' value (without the £ sign) may cause some confusion. He told STAMP MAGAZINE: 'By in large errors are increasingly rare but there was a real concern it was going to bring in dubiety about the value of the stamps. It was the confusion element which we wanted to avoid'.