The Penny Black

Historical Information on British Victorian Stamps

Colour trial 1840	Penny black May 1840

The Penny Black - The world's first prepaid adhesive postage stamp

The Penny Black was the world's first prepaid adhesive postage stamp. It was issued on Wednesday 6th May 1840 and the Twopenny Blue was issued on Friday 8th May 1840 early in the reign of Queen Victoria (b1819), who reigned from 1837-1901, her portrait was used on the stamp as it would be more recognisable by the public. The portrait on the penny black is based on the Wyon city medal of 1837 which William Wyon modelled in 1834 when Princess Victoria was only 15. As this was the first postage stamp, the country name is omitted, a tradition continued with all the stamps of Great Britain, the identifying characteristic is the monarch's head which always faces to the left on definitive stamps. The postal rate of one penny meant that a letter not exceeding half an ounce in weight could be sent to any part of the United Kingdom. The purpose of the stamp was to indicate that the postage had been prepaid. Before the invention of the stamp the receiver paid the postage rather than the sender.

A postal delivery system had been in place since 1510 for the King's Post. The General Post Office was established in London in 1710. Prior to the uniform penny postage introduced in 10th January 1840 the postage depended on the distance travelled and the number of sheets of paper used (postal rates). In 1812 the rate for single letter was 4d. for a distance of not more than fifteen miles. A letter from London to Brighton cost 8d., to Nottingham 10d and over the Scots border to Edinburgh 1s 1½d which was a days salary then. The postage was paid by the receiver rather than the sender and much effort was spent by the Post Office in collecting the money from a reluctant receiver. By prepaying the postage the difficulty in collecting the money was reduced and money could be saved by the Post Office.

Rowland Hill (1795-1879) is the man usually connected with the postal reform. He was born in Kidderminster in 1795 and for a time he was a teacher. Hill published his most famous pamphlet "Post Office Reform: its Importance and Practicability" in 1837. Hill wrote in his reform plan about the need for pre-printed envelopes and adhesive postage stamps to indicate prepayment of postage. The sender paid the postage rather than the receiver. The Reform also called for a uniform low rate of one penny per half-ounce a letter to anywhere in the British Isles. The uniform penny postage was introduced on 10 January 1840, before stamps were issued on 6 May 1840 (example letter). He worked for the Treasury between 16th Sep 1839 until 1843, he returned to office as Secretary to the Postmaster-General in 1846 until his retirement in 1864, he was knighted in 1860 and died in 1879. The success of the Uniform Penny Postage can be seen by the number of letters carried in the United Kingdom.

Other countries followed; in 1843 Brazil, 1847 USA and Mauritius, 1849 France and Belgium and by 1860 about 85 countries or other entities had issued stamps.

With the advent of prepaid postage Rowland Hill advocated that houses should have letter boxes to facilitate delivery of the letter.

The line-engraved printing method was used in which the ink was in grooves on a plate and pressure was used to force the ink onto the paper. The printing was carried out by Perkins Bacon and Petch.

Corner letters: The stamps were printed in sheets of 240 (20x12) and the stamps had corner letters (botton left and right of the stamp) corresponding to its position on the plate. Starting with AA, AB, AC...to AL for the top row, the second row goes from BA to BL and the twentieth row from TA to TL. There were 240 pence to the pound and 12 pence to the shilling, and therefore 20 shillings to the pound. Thus a sheet of 240 stamps would cost £1, half a sheet of 120 stamps would cost ten shillings, one row of 12 stamps cost a shilling (i.e. 12 pence). Four different alphabets were used in the course of time to form the corner letters. The penny black had two corner letters, JF is shown below as well as its position on the sheet.

Plates of the Penny Black

The stamps were initially not perforated, but had to be cut with scissors, perforations were introduced in 1854. Each stamp had its own 'small crown' watermark. Due to wear eleven different plates were used to print the Penny Black.

Initially the cancellation was in red, then changed to black. In 1841 some of the same plates used to print the Penny Black would be used to print the Penny Red, the colour was changed so that the black cancellation would be more clearly seen.

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

The Penny Black is not that rare a stamp as about 68 million were issued in 1840-41, today the price varies according to condition, since the stamps were cut by scissors, the best prices are for stamps which still have all four margins of the design intact. A good four margin used copy can be bought for about $120 (see Arthur Ryan Private Treaty list). The Twopenny Blue issued two days later is actually much rarer as only 6.5 million were issued, prices start for good used four margin copies at about $220. As with most collectibles condition is king. Rather rarer is the Five Pound orange only 246,826 of these were issued or the Two Shilling brown only 77,620 were issued. Colour trials such as the beautiful DP20 or DP43 are even rarer and can be bought for as little as $500. Stamps overprinted with 'specimen' were sent to postmasters as examples of issued stamps, these are available on the market at a fraction of the cost of mint examples. Used examples of the period have killer cancellations that were designed to obliterate the stamp - so that it could not be used again. The postal authorities were clearly worried that people might 'clean' the stamp so that it could be used again. The colour of the Penny Black was changed to red for this very reason. Used examples with a light cancellation command a much higher premium on the market than heavily obliterated ones.

The low value (½d, 1d, 1½d and 2d) line-engraved stamps continued to be used until 1879. The ½d and 1½d stamps were introduced in 1870, the ½d stamp was used for the popular new postcard rate.

The line-engraved stamps (½d, 1d, 1½d & 2d) were replaced by the Provisional issue of 1880, which was surface-printed by the printers De La Rue. The 1d provisional was superceded by the Penny lilac in July 1881 and the rest by the 'Lilac and Greens' of 1883.

Higher value stamps 2½d to £5

The first higher value stamps were the 1s, 10d and 6d embossed stamps issued in 1847, 1848 and in 1854 respectively. The first surface-printed stamp was the 4d in 1855, this was followed by the 6d and 1s in 1856, the first surface printed 10d was not issued until 1867. These were replaced by the 'Lilac and Greens' unified issue of 1883. The unified series combined low values (½d, 1½d & 2d) and higher values (2½d, 3d, 4d, 5d, 6d, 9d, 1s) into one unified issue.

Abbreviations used:

The table below summarises when most of the values were first issued.

For catalogues on British stamps see my books page

British monarchs on stamps see here (includes letter and postcard rates).

Line-engraved study - reds and blues (dies, paper, watermarks, perfs, plates, colour etc.)

Penny blacks on cover/envelopes

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