The Penny Black Stamp Store: What Is A Penny Black? A Look At The 175-Year-Old Stamp Fascinating Everyone

Saturday 2 May 2015

What Is A Penny Black? A Look At The 175-Year-Old Stamp Fascinating Everyone

Here is an extract from a Huffington Post article that interviewed Philip Parker of the Royal Mail about the special collectors' set, said: "Royal Mail has a long and rich heritage which includes issuing the Penny Black, the world's first and arguably most famous, postage stamp. The Penny Black also signified a communication revolution, enabling people to send letters anywhere in the country for the same price. It was the internet of its day as mail became accessible for more people than ever before. The universal service is still the principal that underpins Royal Mail's service today and helps us to connect people and businesses together for a uniform price, wherever they are in the UK." The set of stamps, which include images of the Penny Black and the Twopenny Blue stamp, goes on sale from May 6 2015.

It was the world’s first adhesive stamp and in today’s terms would cost £3.07. The Penny Black was part of huge changes in the postal service, including charges by weight for a letter to go anywhere, as opposed to prices being worked out by distance and number of sheets in a letter.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/05/01/what-is-a-penny-black-stamp-anniversary_n_7187770.html

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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.