Penny Black
Country of production	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Location of production	London
Date of production	1840
Nature of rarity	World's first postage stamp
Estimated existence	Unknown
Face value	1-Penny
Estimated value	£3-4000 (mint)

The Penny Black, the world's first adhesive postage stamp of a public postal system, was issued by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 May 1840, for use from 6 May. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927 London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. £sd (pronounced and sometimes written Lsd) was the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies ( sterling) used in the United Kingdom and A postage stamp is an adhesive paper evidence of pre-paying a fee for postal services The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927 Events 305 - Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman Emperor. Year 1840 ( MDCCCXL) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year Events 1527 - Spanish and German troops sack Rome; some consider this the end of the Renaissance. Although all London post offices received official issues of the new stamps, other offices throughout the United Kingdom did not, and continued to accept postage payments in cash only for some time. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Post offices in some other localities, such as those in the city of Bath, began offering the stamp unofficially after 2 May. Bath is a city in Somerset in the south west of England It is situated west of London and south-east of Bristol. Events 1194 - King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter.

History

The idea of an adhesive stamp to indicate prepayment of postage was part of Rowland Hill's 1837 proposal to reform the British postal system. Sir Rowland Hill KCB FRS ( December 3, 1795 - August 27, 1879) was a British teacher and social reformer Mail, or post, is a method for transmitting information and tangible objects wherein written Documents typically enclosed in Envelopes and also A companion idea which Hill disclosed on 13 February 1837 at a government inquiry was that of a separate sheet which folded to form an enclosure or envelope for carrying letters. Events 1258 - Baghdad falls to the Mongols, and the Abbasid Caliphate is destroyed Year 1837 ( MDCCCXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common An envelope is a Packaging product usually made of flat planar material such as Paper or cardboard and designed to contain a flat object which in a postal-service At that time postage was charged by the sheet and on the distance travelled.

Postal delivery systems using what may have been adhesive stamps existed before the Penny Black. Apparently the idea had at least been suggested earlier, notably in Austria, Sweden, and possibly Greece. Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία

Hill was given a two-year contract to run the new system, and he and Henry Cole subsequently ran a competition to identify the best way to pre-pay letters. Sir Henry Cole ( 15 July 1808, Bath, England – 18 April 1882, London, England) was a Civil None of the 2600 entries was good enough, so in the end Hill launched the service in 1840 with an envelope bearing a reproduction of a design created by the artist William Mulready and a stamp bearing a reproduction of the profile of the reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria. William Mulready ( April 1 1786 &ndash July 7, 1863) was an Irish genre painter living in London. Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901 was from 20 June 1837 the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland There are also references on the record to covers bearing the Mulready design. In Philately, a cover is an Envelope or Package, typically with stamps that have been cancelled To this day, all British stamps bear a profile of the reigning monarch somewhere on the design, and are the only stamps that do not name their country of origin.

A Penny Black, with a red cancellation that was hard to see and easily removed

In 1839, the British Treasury had announced a competition to design the new stamps, but none of the submissions was considered suitable. On Mail, a cancellation (or cancel for short is a Postal marking applied to a Postage stamp or Postal stationery indicating that For the US government securities see Treasury security. Also see Treasury management. The Treasury chose instead to use a rough design endorsed by Rowland Hill, featuring an easily recognisable profile of a 15-year-old Princess Victoria. Rowland Hill may refer to Sir Rowland Hill (MP, English Member of Parliament for the City of London 1553 Sir Rowland Hill (postal Hill believed this would be difficult to forge. The head was engraved by Charles and Fredrick Heath based on a sketch provided by Henry Corbould. Corbould's sketch, in turn, was based on the cameo-like head by William Wyon, that had been done for a medal used to commemorate the visit of Queen Victoria to the City of London in 1837, the year of her coronation^[1][2]. For the "brief appearance" see Cameo appearance. For the "chemical emergency software" see Computer-Aided Management of Emergency William Wyon, RA (1795 &ndash October 29 1851) was official chief Engraver at the Royal Mint from 1828 until his death The word "POSTAGE" appeared at the top of the stamp, to denote its intended use (revenue stamps had long been used in the UK) and "ONE PENNY. A revenue stamp, tax stamp or fiscal stamp is a type of Adhesive label used to collect Taxes or fees on various items " at the bottom, indicating the amount that had been pre-paid for the transmission of the letter to which it was affixed. The background consisted of finely engraved engine turnings. Guilloché is an engraving technique in which a very precise intricate repetitive Patterns or design is mechanically etched into an underlying material with very fine detail In addition, the two upper corners contained star like designs and the lower corners contained letters designating the position of the stamp in a sheet of 240 stamps,"A A" for the stamp located in the top left position, and "T L" for the stamp in the bottom right position. As the name suggests, the stamp was printed all in black. The stamps were printed by Perkins Bacon. Messrs Perkins Bacon & Co was a printer of Bank notes and Postage stamps most notable for printing the Penny Black, the first stamps

Although 6 May was the official first date when the labels were available for the pre-payment of postage, there are known covers postmarked 2 May, due to postmasters selling the stamps from 1 May. In Philately, a cover is an Envelope or Package, typically with stamps that have been cancelled Events 1194 - King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter. Events 305 - Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman Emperor. Stamps used on letters prior to 6 May should have been treated as un-paid and charged double the rate on delivery. Events 1527 - Spanish and German troops sack Rome; some consider this the end of the Renaissance. A single example is also known on cover dated 1 May 1840. Events 305 - Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman Emperor. Year 1840 ( MDCCCXL) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year

Jacob Perkins' press, which printed
the Penny Black and the 2d Blue

The Penny Black was in use for only a little over a year. It was found that a red cancellation was hard to see on a black background. Also, the red ink was easy to remove from the Penny Black, making it possible to re-use stamps, even after they had been cancelled. In 1841 the Treasury switched to the Penny Red and issued cancellation devices with black ink. The Penny Red, issued in 1841, succeeded the Penny Black and continued as the main type of Postage stamp in the United Kingdom of Great Britain The black ink, which was much more effective as a cancellation, was also harder to remove. The re-use of stamps with the un-cancelled portions of two stamps to form an unused whole impression continued and in 1864 the stars in the top corners were replaced by the check letters, as they appeared in the lower corners, but in reverse order.

Printing

The Penny Black was printed from 11 plates. However, as plate 1 was completely overhauled due to excessive wear, it is generally considered as two separate plates, 1a and 1b. Plate 11 was intended originally solely for the new red stamps, but a small number were still printed in black. These are now very rare. (See information on Penny black printing plates)

An original printing press for the Penny Black, the D cylinder press invented by Jacob Perkins, is on display to the public at the British Library in London. The printing plates for the Penny black, Two pence blue and the VR official were all constructed by Perkins Bacon, the printers of the first Postage Jacob Perkins ( 9 July 1766 &ndash 30 July 1849) was an Anglo-American Inventor, Mechanical engineer and Physicist The British Library ( BL) is the National library of the United Kingdom. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom.

Rarity

The Penny Black is not a rare stamp. The total print run from all plates was 286,700 sheets with 68,808,000 stamps and a substantial proportion of these have survived^[3]. This is due mainly to the fact that, in those days, it was not the custom to use envelopes; generally, the letter would be written on one side of a sheet of paper, which would be folded over and sealed and then the address and stamp would be on the reverse of the same sheet. Therefore, if the letter was not thrown away, then the stamp would be saved from destruction too.

The Penny Black is readily available on the collectors' market today, a used stamp in poor condition can cost as little as £10 ($20). However, because of its significance, this stamp in fine condition is in demand by collectors and therefore not cheap; in 2000, a used stamp cost about £110 (around US$200), an unused example about £1,600 (around US$3,000) with prices steadily rising. By contrast, a used Penny Red was £1. The Penny Red, issued in 1841, succeeded the Penny Black and continued as the main type of Postage stamp in the United Kingdom of Great Britain 50 ($3).

Official variant

In addition to the general issue of the Penny Black postage stamps, a similar stamp was produced which had the letters V and R in the top corners replacing the stars. The intention of this issue was that it would be for use on official mail. Following the general public's acceptance of the postage stamps and the ridicule of the Mulready letter sheets which had been produced at the same time, vast supplies of the letter sheets were given to government departments, such as the tax office, for official use. In philatelic terminology a Letter sheet, often written lettersheet is nowadays an item of Postal stationery issued by a postal authority The idea of introducing an official stamp, as such, was abandoned. Only a few postally used examples exist, which probably originated from the Post Office circulars sent out as notification that the new stamps which were being brought into use. From the introduction of the Penny Black by the British Postal system, Post Office Circulars have been sent out from the main office (originally in Edinburgh However, most of the cancelled examples are from trials which were made for cancellation types, inks, and experiments with their removal. These trials led to the change from black to red stamps and vice versa for the cancellations.

The VR official is stated to have been made from the original master die. The VR official was one of three Postage stamps introduced by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in May 1840 for the pre-payment of postage However, this cannot be the case as this die still exists with the original stars intact; this is housed in the National Postal Museum in London. The British Postal Museum & Archive ( BPMA) is the leading resource for all aspects of the history of the British Postal system. It is believed that the master for this stamp was produced from the transfer roller used for the production of plate 1 with the stars removed from the top corners as some impressions show traces of these original stars.

See also

• Bath Postal Museum
• List of British postage stamps
• List of notable postage stamps

External links

• The 1840 Penny Black at the American National Postal Museum
• "Great Britain", First Issues Collectors Club
• Ken Lawrence, "Before the Penny Black"

References

1. ^ H. The Bath Postal Museum is in Bath, Somerset. The museum was founded in 1979 by Audrey and Harold Swindells in the basement of their house This is a list of Postage stamps issued by the United Kingdom (normally referred to as Great Britain in philatelic usage even though standard GB stamps are valid alongside See also The British Postal Museum & Archive, formerly known as the National Postal Museum W. Hill, The Fight for the Penny Post, London and New York, Frederick Warne (1940), pp. 75-79. See Plate 1.
2. ^ "Wyon City Medal - 1837", Images of the World
3. ^ Penny Black Stamp Rarity