prologue © Canal+

feature item © Canal+

feature item © Canal+

epilogue © Canal+

The Mauritius Penny

Teleplay by Malcolm Hulke and Terrance Dicks
Directed by Richmond Harding

Murders

Victim Killer Method Pechkam Goodchild revolver Goodchild Brown revolver

click a name to see the face

Transport

Minutiæ

Cathy tells Steed that having the Mauritius penny on a list of sale islike finding a Da Vinci at your local newsagent and Steed quips, "You'd be surprised what my newsagent has for sale" (by which of course he means under-counter porn). On the way out, Cathy discovers finds that Steed has a copy of "The World's Rare Stamps", marked at the page for the Mauritius Penny; realising he knew full well the value of the stamp all along, she smiles wryly.

If you look closely at the page describing the penny, you'll notice it's someones autobiography:

The [port?] I came to seemed a green and fortunate haven for..
.. Ah! Ships you can refit, making them as good as..
.. four hundred men in their blueish hospital garb..
etc.

Steed does badly when trying to bluff his way through the stamp shop - he finds some ordinary cheap Empires interesting, and dismisses a Napoleon III set as sonething he collected as a child, at which Goodchild says they're worth £85 - and they're labelled £100. Goodchild's test for Steed was to offer him a false stamp - a Maltese tuppenny blue - The Maltese 2d. stamps were grey (1860, 1903, 1914, 1921), or purple and grey (1903) and a brown and blue in 1922; the blue stamp was 2½d.

Patrick Macnee fluffs a cue and looks quizzically at Matterley several times before he makes his bid of £25.

Cathy buys the late Major Wilder's entire stamp collection of 25 albums for a mere £50 and tells the porter for Grosvenor Auction Rooms Ltd. to deliver them to Steed's address - 5 Westminster Mews, SW1.

The main piece of the auction is an Unperforated 1857 Ceylon 9d. brown with 4 clean margins, starting at £500, sold to Lord Matterley for £1,000.
Stanley Gibbons (2006):

1857 Imperf.
8        9d.   brown    £35,000.00   £900.00

It's gone up 3500% in value in 44 years!

Steed finds three strip club cards and a turkish bath ticket in Goodchild's pockets and tell Cathy he was clearly a clean-living type. He also notes six trips abroad in the last year in Goodchild's passport.

The coded list from Paris mentions such lowlights of the philatelic world as:

• Inauguration of New Delhi 1931 issue, 1 anna, mauve and brown
  Stanley Gibbons (2006):

  9 February 1931 Inauguration of New Delhi. T 73 
    and similar horiz designs. W 69 (sideways*). P 13½ x 14.
  228        1 a.   mauve and chocolate    £1.25   £0.20
  

• Martinique 1892 1 centime black on blue
  Stanley Gibbons (2006):

  1892 "Tablet" key-type inscr "MARTINIQUE", 
    in red (1, 5, 15, 25, 75c., 1f.) or blue (others).
  33   D    1c.   black on blue    £1.00   £1.00
  

• Georgia 1919 10 kopek blue
  Stanley Gibbons (2006):

  1919 Imperf or perf.
  10   1    10k.   blue    £0.20   £1.00
  

There is, of course, also the remarkable highlight that gives the episode its name:

• Mauritius penny 1847 red inscribed 'Post Office'
  Stanley Gibbons (2006):

  21 September 1847 CROWN COLONY Head of Queen
    on groundwork of diagonal and perpendicular lines. Imperf.
  1   1    1d.   orange-red    -   £450,000.00
  

Sheila Gray's surgery is at 33 Wimpole St, W1.

The coded list that Brown reads out is:

• Ceylon 1869 ha'penny brown (Brown gets it wrong, it's either a 6d. or a 9d.)
  Stanley Gibbons (2006):

  1867 W 6. Specially produced hand-made paper. P 12½.
  67        6d.   deep brown (1869)       £70.00   £10.00
  69        9d.   bistre-brown (1869)    £400.00   £30.00
  

• Greece 1896 Olympic Games issue, perforated, 1 drachma, blue
  Stanley Gibbons (2006):

  1896 1st International Olympic Games. Perf.
  118   -    1d.   blue    £60.00   £11.00
  

He then says "You don't have to look at your catalogue to know what that means, do you?"

Steed and Shelley are both Old Etonians, Shelley saying he was in Young's house.

Lord Matterley's very short speech to the fascists is:
"I have not had the pleasure, of addressing you before. You have been led to believe, that a great day in British history has arrived. (sotto voce) But it is now my duty to inform you, that owing to unforseen developments, the day of the New Rule must be postponed." (uproar ensues).

Cathy claims to have found a British Guiana 1856 4 cent black with 4 perfect margins in one of the late Major Wilder's stamp albums. There were no black Guiana 1856 stamps, they were all black ink on coloured paper, printed locally as an expected issue of stamps had failed to reach the colony, and countersigned by postage clerks to prevent forgery. All all known examples have marks and countersignatures, so a stamp with 4 perfect margins doesn't exist at all. The 1c magenta is said to the world's rarest stamp, now worth US$935,000 and as there's only one in existence, Gibbons doesn't bother to list it.
Stanley Gibbons (2006):

1856 Imperf.
23   6    1c.   black on magenta       †
24        4c.   black on magenta       †      £7,000.00
25        4c.   black on blue    £23,000.00   £9,500.00
26        4c.   black/blue (Sept)      †     £42,000.00
1856 (b) Paper coloured through.
27   6    4c.   black/deep blue (Aug)  †     £60,000.00