This little study documents some of the colour changes in British stamps from the early single colour trials in 1840 to the two colour Jubilee issue in 1887 to the first multi-coloured stamp in 1963.

Colour trials were carried out in 1840

Red		Blue

The colour of the first stamp issued was black

plate 1a	plate 1b	plate 2	plate 4

The second two penny stamp issued two days later was in Blue
and remained blue for 39 years.

plate 1	Die I, plate 1, Alph I	Die I, plate 2, Alph I

The penny black was changed to red in 1841 and remained red for 39 years

Red Maltese Cross May 1840,		Black Maltese Cross Feb 1841 until 1844

Colour changes in surface-printed stamps 1856-83

These had a more colourful life

2½d			3d
	rosy mauve	blue		rose (pl 21)	lilac (pl 21)
4d
	carmine	pale red	vermillion (pl 15)	sage green (pl 15)	grey brown
6d
	mauve	chestnut	grey (pl 18)	lilac (pl 18)
	1s
		green		orange brown
	£1 SG 185 1884 SG 212 1891 In some instances a stamp from the same plate was issued in two different colours

Colour trials were carried out in 1876 for the 4d plate 15

Penny red 1841-79

Colours of the boring penny red changed in 1880 provisional issue

The 1d provisional was replaced by the penny lilac for the next twenty years

1887 Jubilee issue in which two colours are used.

The two colours were also used on the the new king Edward VII stamps until the King George V stamps were issued in 1911 . From then on the stamps were printed in a single colour until the next two colour stamp, the 'Europa' commemorative issue, in 1960.

The first truly multicoloured stamp was 52 years later the Nature issue in 1963