The Penny Black Stamp Store: One Investment That's Holding Its Value: Collectable Stamps

Sunday, 19 June 2011

One Investment That's Holding Its Value: Collectable Stamps

David Feldman, Geneva philatelic specialist and auctioneer, believes that unique stamps will be increasingly seen as a sound investment. He says rare stamp prices are not subject to big ups and downs, and are supported by a "passionate" collector base of 300 million people worldwide. At Spink, the world's largest stamp auctioneers, four 1840 'One Penny Black' stamps as a set was sold for £92,100 in in 2008.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122963746865419669.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.