Rush to invest in stamps has the recession licked

The stock market remains in turmoil, property, some fear, could go pop at any moment and the banks still look somewhat shaky.

All of which may explain the growing demand for a very old-fashioned type of investment — stamps.

Londoners are being offered the chance to get in on an investment craze that some are likening to the dotcom boom or the California gold rush.

Next week a complete sheet of 80 Chinese stamps from 1980 — the year of the monkey — could fetch £150,000 at auction.

Hefty, you might think, given that the face value of the stamps is about £60. Six months ago, the same set of stamps cost half what they could go for this time.

Philately expert Stanley Gibbons, owner of the world's biggest stamp shop, in the Strand, says business is booming.

Chief executive Mike Hall said: "This is a fear-based economy and traditional investments have been so volatile and some of them have gone to zero. A viable asset such as a stamp will always have some value.

"In the past 10 years the world has created more and more millionaires and they want to protect that wealth. A lot of people see it as a way of getting away from the fear-greed cycle that drives traditional investments.

"Collectibles are driven by the passion of the collectors, not the sentiments of gamblers."

Also about to go under the hammer is something for British history enthusiasts, Lord Nelson's snuff box taken from his cabin on HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar will go on offer for £75,000.

Mr Hall added: "Things like this are a great talking point at dinner parties. Anyone can say they bought a property to rent out or they just bought BP shares because the leak has been plugged. For something like this you have got to be creative and forward thinking."