The first stamps and postal stationery and the beginning of Philately

Contents:

• Introduction
  • The British Industrial Revolution (1760s-1840s) and the origin of Geology
  • The Postal System and the Postal Reform in Great Britain in 1830s
• Design of the first adhesive postage stamp in the world
• The Release of the First Postage Stamps
• Issue of the first postal stationery: Mulready envelopes and letter sheets
• The Legacy
• Acknowledgements
• References

Introduction

The invention of the postage stamp in 1840 was part of an attempt to improve the postal system in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as requested by the growing business community who needed to exchange more communications due to the industrialization process being in the 1760s which we now call the British Industrial Revolution. Before the introduction of adhesive stamps, the British postal system was slow, with high and complex rates.

The British Industrial Revolution (1760s-1840s) and formation of Geology science

The 1830s was the time of industrial explosion and scientific discoveries.
The industrialization process began in Great Britain in the 1760s brought innovative mechanisation and deep social changes. Many factories were built in the country. The invention of steam-powered machines, which were used in factories, caused many people to move from villages to the growing urban centres.

The construction of canals gave William Smith, an English engineer and geologist who is best known for his development of the science of stratigraphy, an introduction to the geology of England as he made many observations on the rock that he excavated during the construction of canals. Later in the Industrial Revolution after the invention of the combustion engine and trains, trains became the preferred mode of transport for bulky goods. This required the construction of railroads - which just like canals led to more geologic investigations during the siting and constructing of the railroad lines.

Since the first railroad in Great Britain was built in 1825 between Stockton and Darlington, railways were built all over the country to transport goods, machines and resources, coal, etc.
Reforms also occurred in social life. In 1832, the Parliament passed a law that changed the British electoral system. It was known as the Great Reform Act, which gave the vote to middle class men.





The 1830s were also the time of foundation of the sciences, Geology and Paleontology in Great Britain.

The increasing economic importance of mining in Great Britain made the possession of accurate knowledge about ores and their natural distribution critical. This need stimulated the rapid development of the science about deposits of different types of rocks and minerals, called Geology today. One of the first geologic map was published in 1815 (by William Smith) followed by a second one in 1820 (by George Greenough). The British Geological Survey (the first Geological Survey in the world) was established in 1835 in London.

In 1820s and 1830s the first three dinosaurs were named by British naturalists:
Megalosaurus was described by William Buckland in 1824,
Iguanodon and Hylaeosaurus were described by Gideon Mantell in 1825 and 1833 respectively, without assigning them to any group of animals. The word dinosaur was coined by the professor, Sir Richard Owen in 1841 (professor Richard Owen was knighted in 1883).

Charles Darwin sailed on the HMS Beagle around the world between 1831 and 1836.
His observations during the voyage lead him to start thinking about animal adaptations to their living environment. These thoughts ended up in his most famous work “On the Origin of Species”, published in 1859. In this work, he presented his theory of evolution which became the foundation of all biology-related sciences including paleontology.

Charles Darwin explores local fauna on Cabo Verde and Falkland Islands during his voyage on the HMS Beagle between 1831 and 1836.

In 1835, the first prehistoric animal was described as such - Ichthyosaur.
Fossils of various prehistoric animals were discovered before then, but all were assigned to living species. Disarticulated fossils of Ichthyosaurs had been discovered in England since the XVII century - ribs, jaws, teeth - were assigned to crocodiles. This was changed when young Mary Anning and her elder brother Joseph discovered a complete skull and a torso of totally new species which did not resemble any living animal.
The discovery started the discussion about extinction: "Why God, who created the Earth and all living organisms, according to his divine plan, allowed some species to disappear?"

Prehistoric marine reptiles: Ichthyosaur, Plesiosaur and Plesiosaurus, described in 1830s by English naturalists, based on fossils discovered by Mary Anning, on stamps of the Royal Mail from 2013 and 2024

The Postal System and the Postal Reform in Great Britain in 1830s

Although business and science moved forward and the transformation of Great Britain from a rural to an industrial country was in full force, the Postal System of the country was stuck in the past.
The Post Service was slow, inefficient, expensive and the charges were too complex to understand, partly because the government used postage as a way to raise taxes, especially after the end of the Napoleonic War.

An example of a cross-written letter: the letter was posted from Leominster to Bristol (9d rate) in 1838.

An example of an unpaid letter. The letter was posted in 1828.

Letters could be sent prepaid by the sender or unpaid, due to the common opinion the delivery was more reliable if the postman had to collect money from the recipient, most of the letters were sent unpaid.
The charge was determined by the number of sheets of the letter and distance travelled, and might include some extra charges or taxes, such as passing through a turnpike toll between England and Scotland ("Add 1/2" Penny), but the recipient could simply refuse delivery after examining the cover.
To save costs, people often used the "cross-writing" technique to save the number of sheets in the letter (see example on the right).
On the other hand, the postman spent considerable time knocking on doors, waiting for answers, arguing with the recipient on whether or not the letter was properly charged, and the finding of the correct money and counting change.

Frauds were commonplace.
The sender and the recipient could agree on some keywords, for example, when the letter was addressed to "John Brown" it meant the sender was doing well. In the case, the letter was addressed to "Mr. John Brown" it meant the sender needed help.

One of the stories, often told about the postal service before the Postal Reform is about an old mother whose son was a soldier. The son was sending a letter every day, to let his mother know he is alive and in good health. The postman visited the mother daily, but she always returned the letter after examining the cover and the letter was brought all the way back to the son on the cost of the Post.

While the average price of a small letter was between 4 and 6 pence, there was no upper limit to the charge. The cost of a letter from London to Edinburgh (approx. 400km apart) could reach a Shilling (12 pence) or even more and it took many days to deliver it to the recipient. As a result, only few people could afford to send letters.

The money system of Great Britain until 1971 was very different from today - the smallest unit was the Farthing.
1d - One Penny made up of four Farthings.
1s or 1/ - One Shilling made up of 12 Pence (Pence is plural of Penny).
1£ - One Pound made up of 20 Shillings (20s) or 240 Pence (240d).
There are also Guinea (1£ + 1s), Half Crown (2.5s) and Florin (2s).

On the other hand, a large number of the noble people, members of Parliament, bishops, highest ranks of army and navy, etc., used the post service for free. Newspapers were taxed, but carried for free too. It is estimated at least 12.5% of the correspondence delivered by the Post in the 1820s-1830s was "FREE".

8d paid letter, posted in 1833	Free postage privilege letter posted in 1838

Two letters below illustrate the complexity of the postal rate and how expensive it was.
The letter on the bottom-left was posted from Melrose to Edinburgh (35-38 miles apart) in October 1813 and was charged "1/2/./2"(1 Shilling + 2 Pence + Half-Penny or two Farthings) or 14.50 Pence . One Shilling and 2 Pence was the postal rate for a double sheet letter (a letter sheet wrapped in another sheet - a kind of envelope) for the distance between 30 and 50 miles. 1/2 Penny was the Scottish tax which came into effect on June 7^th, 1813.

The rectangular mark on the left is not the mileages from Melrose to Edinburgh, but the distance from Melrose to London (377 miles), and B means the letters from Melrose to London were delivered via Berwick (one of the closest ports). The distance between the post office and London was added on the cover because the postage rates were charged by distance from or through London. To help postmasters calculate or check the rates the mileage of post towns was added to some postal marks in 1784.

Skilled man-labour daily wages in 1813 were approx. 2 Shillings (2 Shillings = 24 Pence). The woman-labour earned half and the kid-labour a quarter of the man-labour wages. 14.50 Pence in 1813 in today's money equivalent to approx. €60 - €70.
The second letter posted from Leeds to Aberdeen (350 miles apart) in July 1833 is almost twice as expensive - 2s-2d-1/2d (2 Shilling + 2 Pence + Half-Penny or two Farthings) or 26.50 Pence in today's money equivalent to approx. €100 - €130.

Examples of expensive letters, posted in Scotland in 1813 and 1833 respectively.

The postal rate for letters to overseas was even more expensive, making communication impossible between families who lived in North America or other colonial territories, because the only way to keep in contact with those family members would have been the mail - the telephone and even the telegraph were not invented yet.

The highest prestamp Transatlantic Postal rate known to date, is £26-8s-10d. This rate included £11-2s-8d sheep letter rate and £15-6s-2d inland rate. This package weighing 2.3kg (811.3 ounce) was posted from New York to England. This amount was comparable with the half-annual wages of a skilled labour.

The first well-known Ichthyosaurus skeleton (skull and torso), discovered in 1811-1812 by Mary Anning and her elder brother Joseph was purchased by lord of the manor of Colway, near Lyme Regis for £23.

The Postal Reform was needed not only to increase revenue, but also due to the growing business communications, as result of the British Industrial Revolution, businessmen requested quick and cheap postal service. The business increasingly saw the high rates and slow correspondence delivery as an obstacle to further growth.
The first discussion in the Parliament about the need to reform the Postal System started in 1833. In 1835 the campaign for cheap postage was initiated to investigate the problems by a governmental commission.

Sir Rowland Hill on stamp of Great Britain 1995, MiNr.: 1587, Scott: 1625. The portrait was painted in 1837.

"Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability", by Rowland Hill, published in London in 1837

The Post Office Regulation published on January 7th, 1840 in London

In January 1837, Sir Rowland Hill (1795-1879), who was an English teacher, inventor and social reformer (knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1860), with support of Robert Wallace who was a Member of Parliament, wrote a leaflet called "Post Office Reform", where he presented his ideas to simplify the postal system.
The first edition was intended for the Chancellor of the Exchequer and a few friends of Hill. The second edition included various comments made by the Chancellor, was published and sold to the public at the end of February 1837. Hill's leaflets created widespread interest and discussions, leading to publication of another two editions.

Hill was joined by Henry Cole and a group of businessmen, known as the Mercantile Committee on Postage, who lobbied Parliament to enact the reforms desired, to increase business correspondence and commerce through postal communication.

Sir Henry Cole FRSA (1808 – 1882) was an English civil servant and inventor who facilitated many innovations in commerce and education in the 19^th century in the United Kingdom. Cole is credited with devising the concept of sending greetings cards at Christmas time, introducing the world's first commercial Christmas card in 1843. From 1837 to 1840, he worked as an assistant to Rowland Hill and played a key role in the introduction of the Penny Post.

Main objectives of Hill's reform were:

• reduce the cost of postage by replacing the collection of money on delivery with prepayment by sender by means of adhesive stamps or prepaid covers sold by the post office.
• simplify the rate, by charging per weight instead of the number of sheets and the distance travelled
• create proportional rates for increased weight
• remove the Franking Privilege

To prove that postage had been paid, Hill suggested using either prepaid envelopes and letter sheets or a printed label:
"a bit of paper just large enough to bear the stamp, and covered at the back with a glutinous wash."

Hill also argued, prepaid post will significantly reduce delivery costs of the Post Office, by reducing the postman’s effort:
it would soon be unnecessary even to await the opening of the door, as every house might be provided with a box into which the Letter Carrier would drop the letters, and having knocked, he would pass on as fast as he could walk.

Today every house, flat and office have the front door letter-boxes, but it was an innovative proposal in 1830s.

The first letter-boxes were installed on a wall in one of the biggest churches of Florenz, Italy in the beginning of the 16^th century. They were closed wood boxes with the opening for the letter to allow anonymously complaints for evildoers.

In 1838 Hill made a proposal to the Parliament in which he suggested that
"the postage on all letters received in a post-town, and delivered in the same, or any other post-town in the British Isles, shall be at the uniform rate of one penny per half ounce [14g.]".
The price of one penny was proposed by Hill followed his calculation, based on documentations provided by Mr. Wallace, the cost the Post Office to deliver a letter to any part of the kingdom, including Ireland was less than a farthing (four farthing made a penny).
In his proposal, Hill also called for official pre-printed envelopes and adhesive postage stamps as alternative ways of getting the sender to pay for postage.
Hill argued, that if letters were cheaper to send, people, including the poorer classes, would send more of them, thus eventually profits would go up and it would reduce the cost of business communication too.

Some of Hill's proposals were based on existing solutions and ideas proposed, but not accepted before.
The concept of the reform was an extension of local "Penny Posts" to the entire country. The local "Penny Posts" were introduced in the United Kingdom in 1765 in London, later spread all over the kingdom. By 1838, the number of local "Penny Posts" reached 520. Only the English and Walsh, the local "Penny Posts" served over 1550 towns and villages.
The post delivery within a city or a town, sometimes including the neighbourhood villages, was based on a single postage rate calculated by weight, rather than number of sheets. The covers were stamped with markings such as "PP", "Py Post", or "Penny Post" along with the name of the town.
The idea of prepayment was proposed by Charles Whiting in 1830, who proposed to prepay postage of printed matter with no restriction on distance, by using security-printed envelopes, based on compound-printed banknotes.

One of the main driving forces of the Postal Reform, proposed by Rowland Hill, was Henry Cole, who created and edited "The Post Circular" newspaper where he advocated for cheap postage and removal of the "FREE" postage privilege. A lot of petitions to the Parliament were organized by the Mercantile Committee on Postage.

Even though many people supported the reform the government was worried about the loss of revenue and the noble people who had the privilege of free postage were reluctant to pay for it. However, the joint effort of Rowland Hill, Henry Cole and the Mercantile Committee on Postage created too much pressure on the Parliament and was rewarded by an Act of Parliament that created the "Uniform Fourpenny Post" and Rowland Hill was given a two-year contract to run the new system.



From December 5^th, 1839, until January 9^th, 1840, a uniform charge of 4d was levied for pre-paid letters up to half an ounce [14g.] in weight instead of postage being calculated by distance and number of sheets of paper. One-ounce letters were charged double. Unpaid was charged double the pre-paid rates.
The trial period was a success - the quantity of letters carried increased significantly, therefore the second trial called "The Uniform Penny Post" went into effect on 10 January 1840.
The "FREE" postage privilege was abolished. Special, prepaid envelopes were introduced for mail posted from the Houses of Parliament, House of Lords and House of Commons in the same month and these remained in use until the introduction of the first adhesive postage stamps and postal stationery in May 1840. These envelopes were inscribed in different font on the top side with the following text:

• "To be posted at the House of Parliament only. Post Paid - One Penny. - Weight not exceed 1/2 oz."
• "To be posted at the House of Lords only. Post Paid - One Penny. - Weight not exceed 1/2 oz."
• "To be posted at the House of Commons only. Post Paid - One Penny. - Weight not exceed 1/2 oz."

There are also prepaid envelopes with "Two Pence. - Weight not exceed 1 oz." rate.

Design of the first adhesive postage stamp in the world

After Rowland Hill's proposal was accepted, he was given a two-year contract to run the new system.
A competition to design the stamp and prepaid envelope was announced by the Treasury, but none of some 2,600 entries were considered suitable. Most of the proposals were too complicated or too expensive to produce, some were written proposals only, therefore none of them was awarded the main prize, but four of them received prizes of £100 each. One of the prizes was given to Benjamin Cheverton for his practical suggestions that stamps should be printed in rolls of 240 (240d = £1) on security paper with watermark. To prevent forgery Cheverton suggested "the embossment of a female head of greatest beauty to be executed by Mr. Wyon" (the female head was a profile of Princess Victoria, who became the Queen in May 1837 at the age of 18).

The City Medal commemorates Princess Victoria's visit to the Guildhall in 1837 (made in bronze and in silver).

Farthing coin from 1840 - the profile of the Queen is similar to the one from the profile of the City Medal, but without the diadem on the Queen’s head.

The Die on the cachet of FDC with stamps "175the anniversary of Penny Black". The original can be seen in the British Postal Museum.

The star-like designs at the top corners of the stamp

Check letters on two "Penny Black" stamps (plate Nr. 2 and Nr. 8)

The watermarks from 1840 and 1855 (type I, II)

The watermarks on the reverse sides of Penny stamps from 1840 and 1864 (type II).

The Jacob Perkins' press, which printed the "Penny Black" and the "Two Pence Blue" stamps in 1840.

"Two Pence Blue" stamps from 1840 versus 1841.

Hill accepted these proposals. The sketch of the stamp was provided by an English artist Henry Corbould (1787-1844), who reproduced the profile of the Queen engraved by William Wyon, a Chief Engraver at the Royal Mint in London, on a medal to commemorate the Queen's visit to the City of London after her accession to the throne in 1837. The engraved profile of the Queen on the medal was based on a sketch originally drawn in 1834 when Princess Victoria was only 15. One of the main reasons in choosing the profile of Queen Victoria for the stamp design was that it was instantly recognizable making any attempt at imitation easily detected. This portrait remained on British stamps until the Queen's death in 1901.

Hill chose the leading security printing firm of "Perkins, Bacon & Petch" to print one penny stamps in black colour and double rate, two pence as dark blue - often called "TWO PENCE BLUE", or "TWO PENNY BLUE". The company was probably selected because they used their own engine machine, called "Rose", originally invented by Mr. Perkins for making complicated backgrounds of banknotes and the Post Office was convinced it would make fraud nearly impossible.

Jacob Perkins (1766-1849) was an American inventor, mechanical engineer and physicist. He invented and sold "soft steel" plates for engraving that were hardened after being engraved. The plates were between one and three inches thick, and some weighed over 22kg.
In 1819, Perkins, moved to London on invitation of Charles Heath, who was an engraver, a book publisher, and who convinced him to participate in the competition of Bank of England, who offered a prize of £20.000 for a banknote which was impossible to forge. Their firm, "Perkins & Heath", produced very promising samples, but not won the competition. However, they did manage to secure smaller contracts for £1 banknotes, and later won more government contracts.
In 1829, after a complicated transaction in which Heath gave up his shares and Joshua Butters Bacon (Perkin's son in law) bought in, as "Perkins & Bacon". Henry Petch joined in 1835, and thus the firm printing the first stamps was actually known as "Perkins, Bacon & Petch".

"Perkins, Bacon & Petch" combined the engraved profile of Queen Victoria with the central band of a banknote plate, created for the reverse side of a specimen banknote the company submitted to the Bank of England about 1822 in the competition to print banknotes for the bank.
When the master die was prepared and proof stamps with the profile of the Queen were printed at the end of February 1840, it was sent to Queen Victoria for her approval.

The reverse image was engraved into soft steel to create the master die. The die was hardened in a furnace. The master die was used to create plates of 240 stamps each. A soft steel roller was put in a transfer press and rolled under great pressure back and forth over the hardened die until the design was transferred to the roller.
The image of the die was transferred to the steel roller as a positive image. The roller was rolled over the soft steel plate under pressure to create recessed images which retain ink.

The first stamps in the world did not need to show the issuing country, therefore no country name was included on them. Today the United Kingdom remains the only country to omit its name on postage stamps.

The star-like designs (see on the right) on the top and wordings "POSTAGE" and "ONE PENNY" on the bottom were added by engraving at the beginning of March 1840.

To make forgery complicated, it was decided to punch letters which indicated position (row/column) of the stamp in the sheet from "A A" to "T L". It was thought that, if every stamp on the plate had a different lettering, forgeries would likely be of one particular stamp only, and any considerable sale or use of stamps all of the same lettering might attract attention and lead to enquiry.
The letters on the corners of the bottom side were manually punched on the plates. This was precision work, because the size of the letters is about 1mm tall, and they had to fit tiny squares on the bottom side of the stamps of 119mm by 122mm is size, therefore no two pairs of letters are ever in precisely the same position. In some cases, the letters were significantly shifted from the center of the square or placed crookedly.

These stamps were printed in sheets of 240: 20 rows, 12 stamps each, makes accounting easier, on the watermark paper. The margins of the sheet included the following explanatory text:
Price 1d Per Label. 1/- Per Row of 12. 1£ Per Sheet. Place the Labels ABOVE the Address and towards the RIGHT HAND SIDE of the Letter. In Wetting the Back be careful not to remove the Cement.
The text on the margin of the "TWO PENCE BLUE" stamps sheet was the same but with altered values: 2d, 2/-, 2£.

A Small Crown watermark appeared on every stamp. In 1854, the watermark was replaced by the Large Crown. The Large Crown was available in two very similar designs: Type I and Type II. Type I included two small lines in the lower arches, which were deleted in March 1861. Occasionally, the paper was loaded into the press in the rotated position, creating stamps with inverted watermarks.

The gum was made of potato starch, variable in colour (rare variant was almost colourless), efficiency and taste and was applied on the stamps after the sheets were printed, while hot by the printers with brushes and then dried.

Production of the first plate was completed on April 8^th, 1840. A week after, on April 15^th the plate was registered and started to print stamps. To increase productivity (one press machine was capable of printing about 400 sheets or 96.000 stamps per day), the second plate was added on April 27^th, 1840. The next plate was registered on May 9^th, 1840, eight days after the issue of "Penny Black" and another eight plates were added gradually during the year.

In total, there were 11 plates used for production of over 68 million "Penny Blacks" stamps by the end of January 1841, when the ink of the stamp was changed to red. The estimated survival rate of around 2% makes the "Penny Black" to be not a particularly rare stamp. The most surviving stamps are used stamps, which were removed from the business correspondence, mint examples are scarce so these can cost several thousand Euro.

The plate Nr. 1 printed the stamps in two variants, before and after extensive renovation due to excessive wear, because the plate had not been hardened. Due to extreme wear, the engraved lines of the Queen's head became very faint, and this required the restoration of every one of the 240 units of the plate.
The plate was taken to repair on May 16^th - and returned to production on May 23^rd, 1840 after hardening. These variations are marked as plate Nr. 1a and plate Nr. 1b accordingly. These stamps from these two plates can be differentiated by the absent rays at the top of the star-like design. The plate Nr. 1 was withdrawn on March 23^rd, 1841 and destroyed at the end of the year.

Plate Nr. 11 was registered on January 27^th, 1841. Originally created to print the "Penny Red" stamps which were set to replace the "Penny Black". The red stamps were printed on January 29^th and 30^th. On February 1^st and 2^nd, due to the lack of red ink, the plate was used to print 700 sheets of the black stamps. Since February 3^rd the plate was used to print "Penny Red" stamps only.

The "Two Pence Blue" stamps were printed from two plates only (plate Nr. 1 and Nr. 2), which were destroyed in 1843.

Plate Nr. 1 was registered on May 2^nd, 1840 and the first stamps printed by this plate (619 sheets), came on sale in London on May 6^th, 1840.
Plate Nr. 2 was put on press on July 18^th 1840 and the earliest known used stamps of this plate are dated August 18^th, 1840.

A total of 6.460.000 stamps were printed until 29^th August 1840 when their production was stopped - 3.916.000 stamps were printed by plate Nr. 1 and 2.544.000 stamps were printed by plate Nr. 2 respectively.
The slightly modified version of "Penny Blue", printed by plates Nr. 3 and Nr. 4 went on sale in March 1841 - a horizontal white line was added below word "POSTAGE" and above words "TWO PENCE" on the top and bottom sides of the stamp respectively. The blue stamp with small modification was in production until 1879.

The "Penny" stamps can be assigned to a specific plate based on the shape of star-like designs on the left and right corners on the top side (the rays have different length or missing on some plates) and letters variations in the words "POSTAGE" and "ONE PENNY"/"TWO PENCE" (flaw of some letters) as well as the check letters on the left and right corners on the bottom side.

The Release of the First Postage Stamps

The first adhesive postage stamp, commonly referred to as the "Penny Black", prepaid letter sheets and envelopes, known as "Mulready postal stationery", went on sale in London on May 1^st 1840, but were not valid until May 6^th. The extra five days were required to print enough stamps and deliver them to all Post Offices of the kingdom. Even though the stamps were supposed to be accepted for postage on May 6^th, there is some evidence that a few covers were sent earlier starting on May 2^nd.

The "Penny Black" stamp was printed in different shades of black: intense black - stamp printed by brand new plates, black and grey-black or even grey - stamp printed by worn plates and was sufficient for a letter with weight less than half an ounce (14g), to be sent anywhere within the United Kingdom.

The "Two Pence Blue" (sometimes called "Two Penny Blue") stamp went on sale on May 6^th 1840 and was valid on the same day, making it the second stamp in the world. Except for its denomination the design of both "Penny" stamps was exactly the same. Similar to the "Penny Black", "Two Pence Blue" stamp was printed in different shades of blue: deep full blue, blue, pale-blue, milky blue, steel-blue, bright-blue, deep-blue, and violet-blue.

"Penny Black VR", MiNr.: I, Scott: O1, SG: V1. Image credit: Wikimedia.

In addition to the general issue the "Penny Black VR" stamps were prepared for official use, but not issued for postage purposes. These stamps are the same as the normal stamps, but the letters "V" and "R" replace the star-like designs in the top corners. Because the general public quickly accepted the postage stamps and ridiculed the "Mulready postal stationery" produced at the same time, vast supplies of Mulready's envelopes and letter sheets were given for official use to government departments such as the tax office, and the idea of introducing an official stamp was abandoned. Almost all produced "VR" stamps were destroyed and only a few, unused stamps survived to date.

The stamps were printed imperforate on gummed greyish white paper, hand made by Stacey Wise, because the perforation machine had not been invented yet. The post clerk needed to separate them using scissors. Such separating method was crude and resulted in many stamps being damaged. Due to the fact the distance between two stamps was very small, it was very difficult to cut it with good margins. Today, stamps with straight and wide margins are most valued.

The first two adhesive postage stamps introduced by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in May 1840 for the prepayment of postage and the postmark designed to cancel/"destroy" them.
"Penny Black" - the first stamp in the world (plate 2), MiNr.: 1b, Scott: 1, SG: 2 (black colour).	"Two Pence Blue" - the second stamp in the world (plate 1), MiNr.: 2, Scott: 2, SG: 5 (bright-blue colour).	Red Maltese Cross cancelation mark (obliterator) - was available in many shapes.

One of the concerns of Rowland Hill was how to prevent reuse of the stamp. He tried four types of cancelation marks: a barred circle, eight concentric circles with a solid centre, a circular dated stamp and the “Maltese Cross” - heraldic symbol commonly used in Great Britain.

The “Maltese Cross” is the symbol of the Knights of the Order of Malta (also known as the Knights Hospitaller) dating back to the early 11^th century. The four arms represented the Christian virtues: Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude; and the eight Beatitudes: truth, faith, repentance, humility, justice, charity, sincerity and resistance to persecution.

The “Maltese Cross” (MX) was selected by Hill to "destroy" the stamp after usage. The cancel mark (often called an obliterator) was accepted by the Post, who decided to use red ink - the original colour of the symbol.

When describing the postmarks of the nineteenth century, the word 'obliteration' is synonymous with 'cancellation' - because, of course, that was what they were designed to do - to 'obliterate' the stamp in such a way as to prevent any opportunity for reuse. _{Stanley Gibbons "Commonwealth and British Empire Stamps 1840 -1970" catalogue, 2025 edition.}

This cancel mark includes three figures: outer cross, inner cross and the diamond. The handstamp was cut in brass, mass produced in London, and distributed to postmasters on April 25^th, 1840, but when worn, or broken, they were replaced locally and variations occurred in the shapes and thickness of the lines. In some cases, the "diamond" in the middle was filled with ink.
The ink for the "Maltese Cross" cancel mark was not supplied to post offices, instead the post masters received instructions on how to make it. Due to this reason, many colour variations of the cancel mark exist.

Maltese Cross obliterator with number inside (London 1843).

"GB Specialised Volume 1 Part 1 'Queen Victoria' Stamp Catalogue (1st Edition)", published by Stanley Gibbons in 2020, shows 41 different designs of “Maltese Cross” cancelation marks introduced in 1840. In March 1843 modified "Maltese Crosses" were introduced to the London Inland Office of the General Post Office. These new cancellation marks included a number (1-12) instead of the "diamond" in the middle. An additional cross was added on the top, with the exception of the one numbered “3”. These numbers, probably, are desk numbers in the post office.

The red cancel was visible on the prepaid envelope, but not on the black stamp. It was also relatively easy to remove, because the ink used to print the stamps was more stable than the ink used for the Cross. Some letter recipients were able to remove the cancel mark to reuse the stamp. Others even varnished new stamps with gelatine or other coatings to wipe off the cancel mark after use. To resolve the problem Rowland Hill started to experiment with different colours of the stamp and ink for the cancelation mark. Based on this research, he chose a particular black ink for the cancels, and a red ink for the stamp. The ink for the Maltese Cross cancelation mark was switched to black at the end of August 1840.

There are a dozen known colours of Maltese Cross used to cancel "Penny Black" and "Two Pence Blue": red, black, blue, green, magenta/purple, ruby-red, violet, orange/vermilion, brown, pink, red and black, red and blue.

In February 1841, the "Penny Black" stamp was replaced by "Penny Red". The first "Penny Red" stamps were printed on the seven plates used to print "Penny Black", plates: 1b, 2, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11.
In the same month plate Nr. 3 of "Two Pence Blue" replaced plate Nr. 2 (plate Nr. 1 was discarded in July 1840) and started to print the modified stamp, a white line was added below the word "POSTAGE" on the top and above "TWO PENCE" on the bottom. This change was intended to prevent reuse of the stamp, by making the black cancel mark more visible on its front side.

Matched pair of Penny Black (1840, SG: 2, black) and Penny Red (1841, SG: 7), plate Nr. 8, position CE. Black Maltese Cross seen much better on the red stamp.	Two Pence Blue stamp from 1841, plate Nr. 3 (SG: 14).

To prevent their reuse the new stamps (Penny Read and Blue) were printed in double-fugitive inks with added prussiate of potash.

Penny Red from 1841, plate Nr. 16, SG: 8. The watermark is usually visible on the reverse side of unused stamps with the naked eyes, but it might be required to use UV or other artificial lights of watermark detector device to see it on used stamps, especially if the reverse side is bluish or contain cancellation ink. Sometimes, albino profile of the Queen can be seen on the bluish reverse side of the stamp (see an example above). The effect when the Queen's head shows white on the bluish reverse side of the stamp is known among philatelists as the "ivory head".

This ink reacted with the water in the dampened paper and caused the paper on the reverse side to become bluish (see an example on the right).
On January 28^th 1854, the first perforated "Penny Red" stamps were put on sale. Three days later perforated "Two Pence Blue" stamps followed. These stamps have perforation 16 (16 holes over 2cm length), but it was observed that the holes were too close together and the sheets fell apart under their own weight. Between 1855 and 1857 stamps were produced with perforation 14 and 16. At the end 1857 it was decided to continue to produce stamps with perforation 14 only.

The first trials to perforate stamps started in 1841, rough perforation, possibly made by a sewing machine. Three years later, first mechanical device for separating stamps was designed, but it perforated the stamps on one side only and was complicated to use.
In 1847, Irishman Henry Archer constructed his first machine that punched holes horizontally and vertically between rows of stamps. Next year, after some improvements, he patented his perforation machine. Perforation trials, on "Penny Red" and "Two Pence Blue", were conducted in 1849 and 1850 under the auspices of the Postal Office and stamps from these trials were first issued towards the end of 1850. In 1853, the Postal Office purchased Archer's machines and started to use them for production of the stamps.

"Penny Red" (1841) - successor of "Penny Black", MiNr: 3, Scott: 3, SG: 7, plate Nr. 11. Even light cancellation by black mark is good visible.	"Penny Red" (1854) - the first perforated stamp in the world, MiNr: 8, Scott: 8, SG: 194 plate Nr. 14. Shift of the letters on the bottom corners is good visible.	"Penny Red" (1864) - check numbers in the reverse order added on the top, MiNr: 16, Scott: 33, SG: 43 plate Nr. 90.

Similar to "Penny Black" and "Two Pence Blue", "Penny Red" stamps exist in several colour variants, including rose-red, as shown above.
The watermark was changed on May 15^th, 1855 - the small crown was replaced by a larger and more ornate one.
On April 1^st, 1864, the stars-like designs on the top corners were replaced with the same check letters as used in the lower corners, but in reverse order (see example above). This modification was done in an attempt to prevent the fraudulent use of the uncancelled portions of two stamps which might otherwise be patched together and reused.

The alphabet of the check letters was changed with the time. The first time the alphabet was changed in 1852, then in 1855 and 1861 respectively. The letters of these alphabets have a different form (font), size and thickness.
It is clearly to see, the check letters of "Penny Red" from 1864 look different as the letters of two other stamps on the images above.

The "Penny Red" became one of the main stamps of Great Britain over the next 37 years and it is probably the most common stamp in the world because about 21 billion stamps were produced between 1841 and 1879. Due to the wear, over 400 different plates were used to print the "Penny Red" during this period.
The rarest plate of "Penny Red" is the plate Nr. 77 (produced in 1863), from which it is believed that only one sheet of stamps was printed. According to Post Office records, printing plate 77 was rejected due to poor alignment which meant that some stamps were mis-perforated in production. Although the only sheet printed by plate 77 was meant to be destroyed, some stamps survived and might cost £500,000 today.

"PAID" handstamp on a cover posted from Glasgow to Dingwall in 1845. The slanted line on the right from the handstamp means 1d (One Penny) - the inland rate of letter with weight up to half-once (14g.).

Note:

1. Many philatelists like to plate their Penny stamps (assign them to one of the 11 plates). Plating of the Penny stamps is a big topic, not covered by this article. However, links to some Internet resources, books and YouTube videos dealing with plating were added to the References section below.

2. Mint (unused) stamps of Penny Black might cost a fortune, but used stamps in good conditions are affordable. However, there are many forgeries, especially circulated covers with "Penny Black" and "Two Pence Blue" stamps on the market. To be on the safe side, it is recommended to buy these stamps from the serious dealers, members of Philatelic Traders Society (PTS).

The red "PAID" handstamp, used to mark the prepayment of the letter before introduction of the adhesive postage stamps (the "Penny Family") continued to be used until about 1853. An example of a letter posted from Glasgow in 1845 is on the right.





One of the stamps Professor Richard Owen (at the time, Richard Owen had not been knighted yet) placed on the letter to Sir Henry Barkly, the Governor of Cape Colony and British High Commissioner for Southern Africa, in Cape Town in 1876, was a perforated "Penny Red".

Letter of Richard Owen sent to Sir Henry Barkly in 1876

The Maltese Cross cancellation mark was replaced by the "Duplex Cancellation" in the meantime.

From May 1844, the Maltese Cross cancellation marks were gradually replaced in the post offices of Great Britain. New postal mark had barred numeral cancellation marks that gave a coded indication of the place of posting by means of the number allocated to the office. These numbers initially appeared in single numeral cancellations, and later in the "duplex" cancellations which combined a date-stamp and the cancelation mark.
The reason for the replacement of Maltese Cross to the Duplex, was to make the work of post masters more efficient. Before Duplex introduction they were required to cancel every stamp on the letter with the cancelation mark, then add a postmark with the date and post office code on the cover.

In 1841, the same year the "Penny Red" replaced the "Penny Black" Professor Owen coined the word "Dinosaurs". He is also the one who convinced Parliament to establish the National Museum of Natural History, as "a cathedral to nature", to display all "God creations". The Natural History Museum in London was constructed under his supervision between 1873 and 1880. Today the museum is particularly famous for its exhibition of dinosaur skeletons and ornate architecture—sometimes dubbed a cathedral of nature - both exemplified by the large Diplodocus cast that dominated the vaulted central hall before it was replaced in 2017 with the skeleton of a blue whale hanging from the ceiling.


FDC "150^th anniversary of Dinosaurs' identification by Sir Richard Owens", Great Britain 1991.

Issue of the first postal stationery: Mulready envelopes and letter sheets

William Mulready on stamp of Isle of Man 2015, MiNr.: 2014, Scott: 1708.	Unfolded Mulready's envelope.

The same day with the Penny Black (May 1^st, 1840), prepaid envelopes (8.41cm × 13.02 cm) and letter sheets (21.0 cm x 19.5cm - unfolded) went on sale. These postal stationery are known today as "Mulready postal stationery" or "Mulready covers", after the competition winning Irish artist William Mulready, who was a member of the Royal Academy.

Postal Stationery - an item of stationery that has been printed specially by a postal authority to show the prepayment of postage. _{"GLOSSARY OF PHILATELIC TERMS" of the Postal Museum UK.}

The Mulready's letter sheets followed the traditional letter sheet design and could be folded as normal while the envelopes were a diamond-shaped sheet which, when the sides were folded to the center, became an envelope and the overlapping edges were then sealed (see on the right).
The Mulready illustration, engraved by John Thompson on stereotype brass plates, then printed by the firm William Clowes, such that it appeared on the face of the sheets when folded.
The same as the Penny stamps, the postal stationery were issued in two variants: "One Penny Black" and "Two Pence Blue".
The text on the bottom of the folded envelope or letter sheet inscribed: "POSTAGE ONE PENNY" and "POSTAGE TWO PENCE" accordingly, indicating that postage had been pre-paid. The letter sheet has Post Office instructions and rates printed on its left and right sides.


Post Office instructions and rates printed on the sides of Mulready letter sheet

The design of the postal stationery was probably inspired by papers printed by the Mercantile Committee on Postage during the lobbying period for cheap postage. In these papers they wrote not only about the business, but private communication too. Many citizens of the Great Britain Empire lived or travelled far away from their families. As a result of the Industrial Revolution many people were moving from the countryside to towns and cities, but the high cost of postage prevented separated families from communicating with each other.

Mulready’s design, officially titled "Britannia sending letters to the world", was a romanticised view of the benefits of affordable mail.

• Allegorical figure of Britannia in the center top with a shield depicting the Union Flag and the British Lion at her feet.
• Britannia sends angels (one of them has only one leg) with the message to the four sides of the world.
• The sailing ships and sleigh drawn by reindeer can be seen behind Britannia, a group of Native Americans greeting Europeans with dogs between them, palm tree and planter supervise the loading of casks, representing the North American province (Canada) of the British Empire.
• The group of Chinese with queues, camels, elephants and scribes writing letters represent the continents of Asia shown on the top-left side.
• Two groups reading letters were drawn on the bottom side of the postal stationery: a woman reading a letter to an ill person and a woman (probably a mother) reading a letter to two children represent communication between members of separated families.

The name of the artist "W. MULREADY R. A." was printed on the bottom left corner and the name of the engraver "JOHN THOMPSON" on the right.

The front side of Mulready's postal stationery: "POSTAGE ONE PENNY" and "POSTAGE TWO PENCE" were the same for the letter sheet and the envelope.

Several wild and domestic animals were depicted on the postal stationery, but it took 11 years to see an animal depicted on a postage stamp. In 1851 the Province of Canada (a British colony at that time) featured a beaver - the National symbol of Canada, on their first adhesive postage stamp (Scott Nr. 1).

Both letter sheets and envelopes were produced in sheets of 12 called Formes.
The letter sheets cost one farthing more (four farthings made one penny, the Forme of 12 cost 15 pence) as their postage value, to cover the sheet cost and were sold individually. The Formes of letter sheets could be cut into individual items and sold individually, but the Formes of envelopes could not be cut into individuals and were sold in full Formes, which made them less attractive for most of the buyers.

Each envelope or letter sheet had an identifying number printed on it for security purposes. These numbers were called stereos and were slightly different for the "One Penny" and "Two Pence" postal stationery. The usage of these numbers was similar to the Penny stamps (black and blue) - should the postmaster see the same stereo number appearing often he might suspect forgery.

Embedded thread paper for the "Mulready postal stationery" was produced by John Dickinson and is commonly known as "Dickinson silk".
The threads were embedded in the paper as a security feature (many countries use the same techniques for production of banknotes today) to prevent fraud and forgery.
The letter sheet has three pink threads crossing the top side and two blue threads crossing its bottom side.
The envelope has two pink threads and one blue thread crossing it on the right and left sides.
Another security method was the cancellation style.
All postmasters were instructed to apply the postmark (Maltese Cross) on the figure of Britannia, to prevent reuse of the postal stationery. Should the postmaster see a stamp affixed over Britannia, he might suspect the sender was attempting to reuse an envelope or a letter sheet by covering the Maltese Cross with a stamp.

Until 1840 the use of envelopes was virtually unknown to the wide public in Great Britain, because letters were charged by number of sheets and the envelope was counted as an extra sheet. Envelopes were rarely used by rich people who had "FREE" postage privileges. Others, who had to pay, used folded sheets without any extra cover. Now with postage being charged by weight there was no such restriction. Rowland Hill believed that people would continue to write their letters on folded paper but felt that an envelope would be a useful addition.

Mulready prepaid letter sheet ("One Penny Black").	Example of letter sheet posted in 1833.
Mulready prepaid envelope ("Two Pence Blue").	Example of small envelope posted for "FREE" in 1838.

Many firms, organizations, government agencies, banks, merchants ... recognize new business opportunities in usage of the prepaid letter sheets and envelopes.
Bankers recognized the practicality and convenience of enclosing cheques in prepaid envelopes.
Publishers and booksellers started to offer advertisement subscriptions, similar to modern newspapers and magazines. They offered advertisements placed inside of the letter sheets. These letters sheets were sold under postage value written on them, because the letter sheets were covered by advertisements and it was required to purchase writing paper, but in total the buyer was saving money.
Insurance companies sent their promotion materials inside of prepaid letter sheets too, either printed on the letter sheets or enclosed inside.

Mulready' view of the design was
‘This Design is intended to convey the idea that the measure it assists in carrying out, emanated from Great Britain, and that it is a very wide spreading benefit, facilitating our friendly and commercial intercourse with remote lands, and bringing, in a manner, our separated brethren closer to the sick beds and cheerful firesides of home.

The public saw it differently.
Many caricatures were produced by stationers and publishers - just envelopes, requiring a stamp be affixed to them. The first caricature, called "Britannica seated on an Egg", created by Robert Wright Hume, who can be called the "inventor" of the caricature envelopes, was posted only one week after release of the "Mulready postal stationery", on May 13^th, 1840 and was addressed to William Mulready himself.

Two of many caricatures of the Mulready postal stationery

Even though, Rowland Hill expected the Mulready postal stationery to be more popular than the postage stamps, a week after start of the sale he stated:
I fear we will be obligated to substitute some other stamp for that designed by Mulready, which is abused and ridiculed on all sides, the public have shown their disregard and even distaste for beauty.

By June 1840 it was realized there was no demand for "Mulready postal stationery".
Within two months a decision had been made to replace the Mulready designed postal stationery and by November when the stock of the postal stationery became so large, it was decided to stop their production. The vast supplies of unsold Mulready's envelopes and letter sheets were given for official use to government departments such as the tax office, to replace "Penny Black VR" stamps which were produced for the government use. Some envelopes and letter sheets remained in the stock post offices so the public could purchase them if they wished.

On 10 February 1841, in the same month when the "Penny Red" stamp replaced the "Penny Black", the so-called "Penny Pink" postal stationery came to market.

Penny Pink postal stationery (1841), successor of Mulready postal stationery.

The "Penny Pink" letter sheets and envelopes have an embossed oval stamp "POSTAGE ONE PENNY" with the same profile of Queen Victoria, as was printed on the Penny stamps (Black, Blue and Red). The front and reverse sides of the postal stationery were blank.
Later "POSTAGE TWO PENCE" letter sheets and envelopes, with blue embossed oval stamps were produced.
Similar to the "Mulready postal stationery" the new postal stationery were sold unfolded and ungummed. Pre-folding machines were introduced in 1845 and pre-folded and gummed envelopes with curved top flaps were introduced in 1850.

After the withdrawal of Mulready envelopes and letter sheets and issue of the "Penny Pink", production of caricature envelopes was stopped, by early 1841, but many of them survived to date.
Many hundreds of them are shown in "The Mulready Caricature" book, created by Robin Cassel and Richard Hobbs, issued in two volumes in 2024 (ISBN 978-1-913015-31-2).

The Legacy

The Postal Reform of Rowland Hill was a success. In 1840, the first year of the "Penny Post", the number of letters sent in the United Kingdom more than doubled and within 10 years, it had doubled again. The growing number of letters required optimization of the letter collection service.

"150 years of the pillar box", Guernsey 2002, MiNr.: Bl. 30 (925), Scott: 768.

The first, experimental pillar mailbox away from the post office was installed on Jersey and Guernsey in 1852 and 1853 respectively.

The first post boxes were created by M. De Velayer and are believed to have been installed in and around Paris in 1653. During the reign of Louis XIV, De Velayer established a private "penny" post in Paris, with letters deposited in collection boxes on street corners around the city. These letter-boxes quickly disappeared, because they were often devastated and mice made their homes inside. In the earlier 19^th century the post boxes started to appear in France again and by 1829, post boxes were in use throughout France.
The oldest post box in Great Britain is the post box originally installed in the wall of the Wakefield Post Office is dated 1809. It is now on display at the Wakefield Museum.

In 1853, the mail pillar boxes started to appear on the British mainland and spread over the country. Prior to the Postal Reform, it was possible to bring the letter to the "Receiving House" (a kind of Post Office) or give it to the bellman, who wore a uniform and walked the streets collecting letters from the public, ringing a bell to attract attention.
The first mail boxes were different in form and colour. The red pillar mailbox, one of the most recognisable symbols of Great Britain today, appeared in 1879.

Other countries soon followed the United Kingdom with their own stamps.
Brazil was the second country in the world to issue postage stamps valid within the entire country, in 1843. Some Cantons of Switzerland issued stamps starting in 1840, but it wasn’t until 1850 that the Federal Postal Service of Switzerland issued stamps useable across the entire country. At that date, Switzerland became the third country to release postage stamps valid across the entire country. By 1860, postage stamps were used in 90 countries of the world. The first postage stamp related to Paleontology was issued in the USA in 1856.

On October 9^th, 1874, 22 countries gathered to sign the Treaty of Bern, creating the General Postal Union, which would later become known as the Universal Postal Union (UPU). Before the establishment of the UPU, every pair of countries that exchanged mail had to negotiate a postal treaty with each other, that made international postal rates complicated and very expensive. Today the Universal Postal Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among member nations and facilitates a uniform worldwide postal system. It has 192 member-states and is headquartered in Bern, Switzerland.

Sir Rowland Hill and "Penny Black" stamp can be seen on several hundreds of stamps today. MICHEL-online, for example, retrieves 180 issues related to "Rowland Hill".

Sir Rowland Hill on Souvenir Sheet of Guernsey 2015, MiNr.: Bl. 74 (1526), Scott: 1300.

Most of these stamps were issued on the following occasions:

• 1940 - "100^th anniversary of Penny Black"
• In 1944, Argentina issued a stamp to commemorate the 150^th Anniversary of Sir Rowland Hill (1795 - 1879)
• 1979 - "100 years since death of Sir Rowland Hill"
• 1990 - "150^th anniversary of Penny Black"
• 1995 - "200^th anniversary of Sir Rowland Hill"
• 2015 - "175^th anniversary of Penny Black"

FDC and booklets panes of some issues show not only the portrait of Sir Rowland Hill, Penny stamps (Black, Red, and Blue) and Mulready postal stationery, but also their design and production process.

Acknowledgements:

• Many thanks to Dr. Peter Voice from Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Western Michigan University, for reviewing the draft page and his very valuable comments.

References:

Money system of Great Britain un XIX century A Family Story Tower Bridge CPI Inflation Calculator Pascal Bonenfant

Industrial Revolution in Great Britain World History A Family Story Tower Bridge

Social Reform in Great Britain in XIX century Wikipedia National Archives UK

Rowland Hill Wikipedia Encyclopedia Britannica The Postal Museum

Postal Rates 1801-1839 (GBPS) 1840-1968 (GBPS) Transatlantic-mail (Postal Museum of Smithsonian)

Queen Victoria Wikipedia Encyclopaedia Britannica The Royal Family BBC Wyon City Medal: Images of the world Henry Cole Wikipedia William Mulready Wikipedia Encyclopaedia Britannica Royal Academy of Art

Postal Reform Smithsonian National Postal Museum Wikipedia Encyclopaedia Britannica BBC Postal Museum (PDF file) "Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability", by Rowland Hill, published in London in 1837 (Google Books) Postage Act 1839: Wikipedia Penny Post: Wikipedia Uniform Penny Post: Wikipedia

The Maltese Cross cancelation mark (obliterator) gatehouse-folk The collectors shop black rock The Great Britain Philatelic Society David Feldman international auctions templar-cross Stamps of the World Watermarks Watermarks - a philatelic introduction (APS)

Stanley Gibbons Wikipedia Post Boxes Wikipedia The Postal Museum Norby's Personal Page "The Guinness Book of Stamps Facts and Feats" by James A. Mackay, published in 1988, ISBN: 0851123511 Jacob Perkins Wikipedia "Perkins, Bacon & Petch" Wikipedia

Penny Black Wikipedia Warwick and Warwick Stanley Gibbons The Royal Mint Museum Postal Museum Penny Black stamp Bill Barrell The Penny Black Introduction The Plating of Penny, by Mike Batty (PDF) David Feldman Auction Penny Black VR Wikipedia Smithsonian National Postal Museum

Penny Blue Wikipedia Warwick and Warwick Penny Post Penny Red Wikipedia Warwick and Warwick Penny Post The Penny Red Collector Universal Postal Union (UPU) Wikipedia official website

Mulready postal stationery Wikipedia The Victorian Web Stanley Gibbons: [1] [2] Corinphila Postal Museum of Smithsonian: [1] [2] "The Mulready Envelopes and Letter Sheets", by Tom Slemons, published in Gibbons Stamp Monthly in March 2012 Perforation (stamps separations) Wikipedia Smithsonian National Postal Museum

Specialised Literature about the Penny stamps and the Mulready postal stationery (envelopes and letter sheets)

• GB Specialised Volume 1 Part 1 'Queen Victoria' Stamp Catalogue (1^st Edition), published by Stanley Gibbons in 2020, ISBN: 978-1-911304-54-8
• Commonwealth and British Empire Stamps 1840-1970 (127^th Edition 2025), published by Stanley Gibbons in 2024, ISBN: 978-1-8051792-1-4
• "The Mulready Caricature" book, created by Robin Cassel and Richard Hobbs, published by the Royal Philatelic Society London in two volumes in 2024 (ISBN 978-1-913015-31-2), printed by "Pardy and Son". The book includes 2.392 images of all known copies.
• "The plating of the Penny Black postage stamp of Great Britain 1840", by Charles Nissen, published by Stanley Gibbons Ltd. in London in 1998. ISBN: 0-85259-459-3
• "The British Postage Stamp of the 19^th century" by Robson Lowe, published by the National Postal Museum London in 1968.
• MICHEL "Großbritannien-Spezial 2022/2023" published by Schwaneberger Verlag in Germering in 2022. in German. ISBN: 978-3-95402-407-0.

For more details about the Penny stamps and the Maltese Cross please watch the following YouTube videos.


Plating the Penny stamps


Valuing the Penny stamps

For more details about Postal History please watch the following YouTube videos.

Other Topics

The Rolling Press for Pictures - use the same principal as the press used to print the Penny stamps in 1840.	The first Christmas Card was designed by Henry Cole who helped Sir Rolland Hill to design and produce the Penny stamps.

Anchors

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