The Penny Black Stamp Store: Treasures of the Archive at the BPMA

Saturday 25 June 2011

Treasures of the Archive at the BPMA

The British Postal Museum and Archive (BPMA) is custodian of two significant collections that together span 400 years of postal heritage: the Royal Mail Archive and the museum collection of the former National Postal Museum. Records in the Royal Mail Archive are Designated as being of outstanding national importance.

An exhibition of treasures from the collections of the BPMA. From a pistol carried by a Mail Coach Guard in the 1800s, to a bag of evidence from the Great Train Robbery of 1963, the objects on display represent the great wealth of material looked after by the BPMA in The Royal Mail Archive and Museum Collection. Special highlights of the exhibition include one of the only complete sheets of Penny Blacks in the world, and the Old Original die of 1840 from which all Penny Blacks and many Penny Reds were created. From September 2011, the exhibition will also include unique material celebrating the centenary of the world's first regular Aerial Post from Hendon to Windsor established as part of the celebrations for the coronation of King George V.

The "Old Original" die from which most Penny Blacks and Penny Reds were made from.

BPMA Search Room
Freeling House
Phoenix Place
London
WC1X 0DL

Website: http://postalheritage.org.uk/page/treasures#-Gallery
Email: info@postalheritage.org.uk

Source: http://postalheritage.org.uk/page/treasures#-Gallery

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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.