The Penny Black Stamp Store: PB05: Outstanding Penny Black with Even Borders and Light Cancellation

Monday 27 June 2011

PB05: Outstanding Penny Black with Even Borders and Light Cancellation

Code PB05: SG2 / 1840 issued Penny Black 1d Intense Black: 4 evenly distributed margins on an intense black background makes this J-G Penny Black an excellent speciment. The Maltese Cross is slightly off-centered southwards which allows the Queen's portrait to be clearly seen with good details. More importantly, a clear watermark on the reverse is shown. This piece comes from Plate 2. ~~£285.00~~ ~~£275~~ SOLD plus postage, shipped from the United Kingdom. A real investment piece!

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A Brief History

Before 1st May 1840, posting a letter was a very complicated and expensive affair. It could cost the equivalent of a days wage, and it was charged by how many sheets of paper were used and how far it had to travel. Normally the recipient had to pay the cost.

Sir Roland Hill was responsible for reforming the British postal system, and as part of this a competition was held for the public to design the world’s first adhesive postage stamp. However none of the entries were thought suitable, so instead they used the profile sketch of a then 15 year old Queen Victoria. This image was used on stamps until the end of her reign. Because the Penny Black was the first postage stamp in the world, it did not show a country of origin, and to this day British stamps are the only stamps in the world that do not state what country they are from.

However, the Penny Black only remained in circulation for a year, as it was soon found that it was possible to remove the ink of the red cancellation mark and re-use the stamp, so the Treasury switched to the Penny Red and black cancellation ink.