Stanley Gibbons has acquired a rare Master Die Proof of the world's first stamp, the Penny Black. it is one of only two complete examples in private hands from a total of five known examples in the world, and is now being offered for sale at £350,000. The other known example in private hands, once owned by the Earl of Crawford is said to be flawed in comparison. Printed in March 1840, two months before the release of the Penny Black, the die proof was produced to check that all the details in the design would print correctly before the stamp went into production release in May.
The Penny Black went on to
revolutionise the world; by the end of 1840 over 160 million letters had
been sent all over the world, doubling the number from the previous
year. As the stamp had originally been intended only for domestic use
it did not include the country name in the design. To this day Great
Britain is the only country in the world not to have its country name on
its stamps and this history can be traced back to the die proof offered
for sale by Stanley Gibbons.
With
a print run of approximately 68 million the Penny Black is not rare;
however a used example is currently catalogued at £350, showing an
average compound growth of 11% over the past decade.
Credit: British Philatelic Bulletin Vol. 49 No. 11 July 2012
http://stanleygibbonsltd.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/worlds-most-important-proof.html
http://www.stanleygibbons.com/stanleygibbons/view/content/penny_black_proof_pr
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