The Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp A postage stamp is adhesive paper evidence of a fee paid for postal services. Usually a small rectangle attached to an envelope, the stamp signifies the person sending it has fully or partly paid for delivery. Postage stamps are the most popular way of paying for retail mail; alternatives include postal stationery such as prepaid-postage envelopes, used in a public postal system. It was issued by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927. It was formed by the merger of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland, with Ireland being governed directly from Westminster through its Dublin Castle administration on 1 May 1840, for official use from 6 May of that year.
All London London is a leading global city being the world's largest financial centre alongside New York City, and has the largest city GDP in Europe. Central London is home to the headquarters of most of the UK's top 100 listed companies and more than 100 of Europe's 500 largest. London's influence in politics, finance, education, entertainment, media, post offices received official issues of the new stamps but other offices throughout the United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland[note 7] is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, and many small islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land did not, continuing to accept postage payments in cash only for a period. Post offices such as those in Bath Bath is a city in the ceremonial county of Somerset in the south west of England. It is situated 97 miles (156 km) west of London and 13 miles (21 km) south-east of Bristol. The population of the city is 83,992. It was granted city status by Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth I in 1590, and was made a county borough in 1889 which gave it, began offering the stamp unofficially after 2 May.
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History
The idea of an adhesive stamp to indicate pre-payment of postage was part of Sir Rowland Hill Sir Rowland Hill KCB, FRS was an English teacher, inventor and social reformer. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of penny postage and his solution of prepayment, facilitating the safe, speedy and cheap transfer of letters. Hill later served as a government postal official, and he is usually's 1837 proposals to reform the British postal system Mail, or post, is a method for transmitting information and tangible objects, wherein written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post; it was normal then for the recipient to pay postage on delivery. A companion idea, which Hill disclosed on 13 February 1837 at a government enquiry, was that of a separate sheet that folded to form an enclosure or envelope An envelope is a common packaging item, usually made of flat material such as paper or cardboard. It is designed to contain a flat object, such as a letter or card for carrying letters. 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 in Austria Austria /ˈɒstriə/ or /ˈɔːstriə/ (German: Österreich (help·info)), officially the Republic of Austria (German: Republik Österreich), is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and, Sweden Sweden (pronounced /ˈswiːdən/ SWEE-dən, Swedish: Sverige [ˈsvær.jə]), officially the Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish: Konungariket Sverige (help·info)), is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and water borders with Denmark, Germany and, and possibly Greece Greece (English: /ˈɡriːs/ ; Greek: Ελλάδα, Elláda, IPA: [eˈlaða] ( listen); Ancient Greek: Ἑλλάς, Hellás, IPA: [helːás]), also known as Hellas and officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία, Ellīnikī́ Dīmokratía, IPA: [eliniˈci ðimokraˈtia]), is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on.[1]
Hill was given a two-year contract to run the new system, and together with Henry Cole Sir Henry Cole was an English civil servant and Inventor who facilitated many innovations in commerce and education in 19th century Britain, and introduced the world's first commercial Christmas card he ran a competition to identify the best way to pre-pay letters. None of the 2600 entries were good enough, so Hill launched the service in 1840 with an envelope bearing a reproduction of a design created by the artist William Mulready William Mulready was an Irish genre painter living in London. He is best known for his romanticizing depictions of rural scenes and a stamp bearing a representation of the profile of the reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria Victoria was the Queen regnant of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India of the British Raj from 1 May 1876, until her death. Her reign as the Queen lasted 63 years and 7 months, longer than that of any other British monarch before or since, and her reign is the longest of any female. There are also references on the record to covers In philately, a cover is an envelope or package, typically with stamps that have been cancelled bearing the Mulready design. All British stamps still bear a picture or silhouette A silhouette is a view of an object or scene consisting of the outline and a featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black. The term was initially applied in the 18th century to portraits or other pictorial representations cut from thin black card of the monarch somewhere on the design, and are the only postage stamps in the world that do not name their country In geography, a country is a geographical region. The term is often applied to a political division or the territory of a sovereign state, or to a smaller, or former, political division of a geographical region. Usually, but not always, a country coincides with a sovereign territory and is associated with a state, nation or government of origin, leaving the monarch's image to symbolise A symbol is something such as an object, picture, written word, sound, or particular mark that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On maps, crossed sabres may indicate a battlefield. Numerals are symbols for numbers . All language consists of symbols the United Kingdom.
A Penny Black, with a red cancellation A cancellation is a postal marking applied on a postage stamp or postal stationery to deface the stamp and prevent its re-use. Cancellations come in a huge variety of designs, shapes, sizes and colors. Modern United States cancellations commonly include the date and post office location where the stamps were mailed, in addition to lines or bars that was hard to see and easily removedIn 1839 the British Treasury A treasury is any place where the currency or items of high monetary value are kept. The term was first used in Classical times to describe the votive buildings erected to house gifts to the gods, such as the Siphnian Treasury in Delphi or many similar buildings erected in Olympia, Greece by competing city-states to impress others during the announced a competition to design the new stamps, but none of the submissions were considered suitable. The Treasury chose a rough design endorsed by Rowland Hill, featuring an easily recognisable profile of 15-year-old former Princess Victoria. 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 was based on the cameo Cameo is a method of carving, or an object such as an engraved gem, item of jewellery or vessel made in this manner. It nearly always features a raised relief image; contrast with intaglio, which has a negative image. Originally, and still in discussing historical work, cameo only referred to works where the relief image was of a contrasting-like head by William Wyon, which had been designed for a medal used to commemorate the visit of Queen Victoria to the City of London in 1837.[2][3] The word "POSTAGE" appeared at the top of the stamp (revenue stamps A revenue stamp, tax stamp or fiscal stamp is a stamp used to collect taxes or fees on documents, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, drugs and medicines, playing cards, hunting licenses, firearm registration, and many other things had long been used in the UK) and "ONE PENNY." 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. The two upper corners contained star-like designs and the lower corners contained letters designating the position of the stamp in the printed sheet; "A A" for the stamp at the top left, and "T L" for the bottom right. The sheets, printed by Perkins Bacon, consisted of 240 stamps in 20 rows and 12 columns. As the name suggests, the stamp was printed in black ink.
Although 6 May was the official date that the labels became available, there are covers postmarked 2 May, due to postmasters selling the stamps from 1 May. A single example is known on cover dated 1 May 1840.
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 and the red ink was easy to remove, making it possible to re-use stamps after they had been cancelled. In 1841 the Treasury switched to the Penny Red 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 and Ireland until 1879, with only minor changes to the design during that time. The colour was changed from black to red because of difficulty in seeing a cancellation mark on the Penny Black; a black and issued cancellation devices with black ink, much more effective as a cancellation and harder to remove. However, 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
Jacob Perkins' press, that printed the Penny Black and the 2d Blue Main article: Penny black printing platesThe Penny Black was printed from 11 plates, but as plate 1 was completely overhauled due to excessive wear, it is generally considered to be two separate plates, 1a and 1b. Plate 11 was originally intended solely for the printing of new red stamps, but a small number were printed in black. These are scarce.
The stamps were printed in unperforated In the early years, from 1840 to the 1850s, all stamps were imperforate, and had to be cut from the sheet with scissors or knife. This was time-consuming and error-prone . Once reliable separation equipment became available, nations switched rapidly. Imperforate stamps have been issued occasionally since then, either because separation equipment sheets, to be cut with scissors for sale and use.
An original printing press for the Penny Black, the D cylinder press invented by Jacob Perkins Jacob Perkins was an Anglo-American inventor, mechanical engineer and physicist. Born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, Perkins was apprenticed to a goldsmith. He soon made himself known with a variety of useful mechanical inventions and eventually had twenty-one American and nineteen English patents.[citation needed] and patented in 1819, is on display at the British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is one of the world's major research libraries, holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats: books, journals, newspapers, magazines, sound and music recordings, patents, databases, in London.[4]
Rarity
The Penny Black is not a rare stamp. The total print run was 286,700 sheets with 68,808,000 stamps[5] and a substantial number of these have survived, largely because envelopes were not normally used: letters in the form of letter sheets In philatelic terminology a Letter sheet, often written lettersheet, is nowadays an item of postal stationery issued by a postal authority. It is a sheet of paper that can be folded, usually sealed, most often with sealing wax in the 18th and 19th century, and mailed without the use of an envelope. Letter sheets derive from the form in which were folded and sealed, with the stamp and the address on the obverse. If the letter was kept, the stamp survived.
The Penny Black is readily available on the collectors' market; a used stamp in poor condition can cost as little as £10 ($20); in 2000, a used stamp in fine condition cost about £110, an unused example about £1,600, with prices steadily rising. By contrast, a used Penny Red was £1.50.
The VR official
Main article: VR officialIn addition to the general issue of the Penny Black, a similar stamp was produced with the letters V and R in the top corners replacing the stars, intended for official mail. Following the general public's acceptance of the postage stamps and the ridicule of the Mulready stationery Mulready stationery describes the postal stationery lettersheets and pre-gummed envelopes that were introduced as part of the British Post Office postal reforms of 1840. They went on sale on 1 May, 1840, and were valid for use from 6 May. The Mulready name arises from the fact that William Mulready, a well-known artist of the time, was produced at the same time, vast supplies of the letter sheets were given to government departments, such as the tax office, for official use and the idea of introducing an official stamp was abandoned. Only a few postally used examples exist, which probably originated from the Post Office circulars From the introduction of the Penny Black by the British postal system, Post Office Circulars have been sent out from the main office, , to give information and examples of the new postage stamps which were coming into general use sent out as advance notice that the new stamps would be brought into use. Four are known on covers; all were cut from their envelopes and then replaced. Most of the cancelled examples are from trials which were made of 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[attribution needed] to have been made from the original master die. However, this cannot be the case as this die still exists with the original stars intact, in The British Postal Museum & Archive in London. 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
- Two penny blue
- Bath Postal Museum
- List of British postage stamps
- List of notable postage stamps
- Mauritius "Post Office"
References
- ^ Lawrence, Ken (2000). "Before the Penny Black". Ken Lawrence. http://www.norbyhus.dk/btpb.html. Retrieved 2008-06-28.
- ^ H. W. Hill, The Fight for the Penny Post, London and New York, Frederick Warne (1940), pp. 75-79. See Plate 1.
- ^ Taylor, R.A.. "Wyon City Medal - 1837". Images of the World. http://www.imagesoftheworld.org/stamps/wyon.htm. Retrieved 2008-06-28.
- ^ British Library collections - Philatelic
- ^ "Great Britain: Wednesday, May 6, 1840". First Issues Collectors Club. 2003-11-03. http://www.firstissues.org/ficc/details/gb_1.shtml. Retrieved 2008-06-28.
- Golden, Catherine J. (2009). Posting It: The Victorian Revolution in Letter Writing. [University Press of Florida]. ISBN The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created by Gordon Foster, now Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin, for the booksellers and stationers W.H. Smith and others in 1966 978-0-8130-3379-2.
External links
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Penny Black |
- The digitised R.M. Phillips Collection of Victorian philately
- The 1840 Penny Black at the American National Postal Museum The National Postal Museum, located in Washington, D.C., USA, was established through joint agreement between the United States Postal Service and the Smithsonian Institution and opened in 1993. The museum is located across the street from Union Station, in the building that once served as the Main Post Office of Washington, D.C. from 1914, when
- These stamps are the legends of the hobby Linns.com Refresher Courses
- Penny Black Catalog Information
Categories: Postage stamps | 1840 introductions | Postage stamps of the United Kingdom | Victoria of the United Kingdom
