The Basel Dove stamp is a notable postage stamp issued by the Swiss canton of Basel. It was issued on 1 July 1845 with a value of 2½-rappen and was the only stamp issued by Basel. At the time each canton was responsible for its own postal service and there were no uniform postal rates for Switzerland until after the establishment of a countrywide postal service on January 1, 1849. The only other cantons to issue their own stamps were Zürich and Geneva.

This postage stamp was designed by the architect Melchior Berri, featured a white embossed dove carrying a letter in its beak, and was inscribed "STADT POST BASEL". The stamp is printed in black, crimson and blue, making it the world's first tri-coloured stamp. But the blue-crimson-black color scheme of the Basel Dove stamp was not well accepted by the public so it was later on withdrawn. These rare Swiss stamps are one of the most beautiful classical stamps.

As with the other Cantonal stamps, the Basel Dove failed to catch the imagination of the public and was withdrawn from use in December 1848. When the Federal Postal Administration came into operation in June 1849, the Cantons of Zürich and Geneva continued to print their own stamps for a short period (the Transitional Issues) until the first Federal stamps appeared in May 1850. Basel, however, did not follow suit.

It was valid for use until 30 September 1854, by which time 41,480 stamps had been printed.

For many years it was not known how many stamps Krebs had printed, how many were received by the Basel Post Office, nor how many were actually sold to the public. In the early 1930s, an article appeared in the Swiss philatelic press stating the total issued was 20,880. More recent information, provided by expert collectors researching the archives of the Basel Postal Administration and the records of the designer Berri, suggests the total printed was 41,480.

Value of rare Basel Dove stamp

When compared to other rare stamps of the world, the extremely rare Basel Dove stamp, from 1845 Switzerland, is not worth as much for stamp collection value. However, its last sale brought a bidding of $32,233 U.S. dollars. After learning about high-end stamp collection value, this may not seem like much. Nonetheless, any stamp collector or informed philatelist would be more than happy to add this beauty to their collection.