| British Artiques Roadshow: ARCHIVE | ||
The Penny Black Misnomer Perhaps the most famous stamp ever issued. But we ask, is it rare? |
||
|
|
|
The Penny Black stamp was introduced by the United Kingdom on the 1st. of May 1840 and was the world's first adhesive postage stamp ever to be produced.
It was the idea put forward in Sir Rowland Hill's 1837 proposal to reform the British postal system. A stamp indicating prepayment of postage. Now it's arguably the most famous stamp ever issued.
The stamp itself depicts a young Queen Victoria and because of the stamp's black color and the denomination of just one penny, it developed the nickname "Penny Black". Prior to 1840, postage rates for delivery of letters in the U.K. depended on the distance the letter traveled and also the number of sheets of paper used in the letter. Interestingly, the postage was required to be paid by the 'receiver' rather than the sender of the message as there was no system for the prepayment of postage prior to mailing. Not surprisingly, as postal rates at that time were comparatively expensive, many people refused to accept any delivery of letters at all! |
The Roadshow Manitoba Penny Black
SIR ROWLAND HILL (1795-1879)
|
The very first stamps were engraved on steel plates and then printed on gummed paper in rectangular sheets of 240 stamps each. For security reasons, each stamp had corner letters on the front corresponding to its position on the plate and a small crown watermark on the reverse. These stamps were 'imperforate,' meaning that the post office had to cut the sheets of stamps with scissors to obtain individual copies for sale. Perforated stamps were not issued in Britain until 1854. The cancellation marks on the Penny Black stamps, or 'franking' as we know it today, were initially executed in black ink, however, this was shortly changed to red ink to make the cancellation marks much easier to distinguish. A two penny blue stamp, or 'Tuppeny blue' which apart from its colour was identical in its design to the Penny Black , went on sale on May 8, 1840 for letters that exceeded the weight of one half an ounce. The Penny Ped, introduced in 1841 continued as the main stamp for postage in the UK until 1879. All in all, about 21 Billion Penny Reds were printed by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co.
Left: Penny Blue Stamp and the penny red Stamp |
 |
The sending of letters and packages using stamps proved to be so popular in Britain that many other countries soon began issuing stamps. So, by 1847, the United States Post Office had issued its very first stamps too. There was now a 5 cent stamp depicting president Benjamin Franklin and a 10 cent stamp depicting George Washington. |
 |
Ben Franklin five cent stamp George Washington ten cent stamp
Popular myth or just another great misnomer:
Unfortunately, although highly regarded by stamp collectors, (philatelists) Penny Black stamps are not all that rare.
About 68 million of these stamps were issued during 1840-41 and it is estimated that about 1.5 million of these survive today!!!
The value of the stamp today varies significantly according to its grade and condition. A fine used copy like the one illustrated above and discovered at one of the Manitoba Roadshows, can be bought for about $125 or less. But fine unused examples are really quite rare and can sell for as much as $3,500 USD. or even more. Thereby underpinning the notion that it's scarcity and RARITY that brings value, not age alone.
Finally, it's interesting to note that in honour of the U.K. having issued the world's first adhesive postage stamps, the Universal Postal Union grants it an exemption from its rule that the name of the issuing country must appear on a stamp. No British stamp to date has ever had that countries name on it. David Freeman 2005 |
About our researchers Freemanart TO CONTACT OUR RESEARCHERS CLICK HERE |
