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Penny Red Queen Victoria issued in 1841-79 Authentic, original old stamp The 1d Red was a development of the Penny Black with the colour being changed from black to red so that the new black Maltese Cross cancellation could be clearly seen.
Watermark:
Crown
Plate Number: 170
The world's first adhesive postage stamp The Penny Black and Red were the world's first adhesive postage stamps used in a public postal system. It was issued in Britain on 1 May 1840, for official use from 6 May of that year and features a profile of the Queen Victoria. All London post offices received official issues of the new stamps but other offices throughout the United Kingdom did not, continuing to accept postage payments in cash only for a period. Post offices such as those in Bath began offering the stamp unofficially after 2 May 1840. The colour was changed from black to red because of difficulty in seeing a cancellation mark on the Penny Black; a black cancel was readily visible on a Penny Red. Penny Red Queen Victoria
Penny Red Queen Victoria
The Penny Red was a British postage stamp, issued in
1841. It succeeded the Penny Black and continued as the main type of
postage stamp in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
until 1879, with only minor changes to the design during that time.
The colour was changed from black to red because of difficulty in
seeing a cancellation mark on the Penny Black; a black cancel was
readily visible on a Penny Red.
History Initially, some of the same
plates that were used to print the Penny Black were used to print the
Penny Red and about 21 billion Penny Reds were printed by
Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. Initially, the stamp had no perforations,
and had to be cut from the sheet using scissors in the same manner as
for the Penny Black and the early printings of the Two pence blue.
Perforations, (experimental gauge 16), first came into use in 1850 and
were officially adopted in 1854 (in the same size as the experimental
issue). The experimental issue can be distinguished from the general
issue as the later was applied to stamp which used a different alphabet
type for the letters in the lower corners. Each stamp has unique corner
letters AA, AB, AC ... AL etc., so its position on the plate can be
identified. Plate numbers On 1 April 1864, the stamp was issued with the plate number engraved in the design, in the left and right side lace work. At this time, the stars in the top corners were also replaced with the same check letters as used in the lower corners, but in reverse order. Because of wear, over 400 different plates were used to print the Penny Red. Two different basic watermarks were used for the paper, small crown, (on the early issues) and large crown, introduced on 15 May 1855. The first stamps printed on the large crown watermarked paper showed two small vertical lines in the central portion of the crown. Later printings showed a revised watermark on which these central lines are not present. Chronology
 The
plate number, 148 in this case, may
be found in the margin of the stamp.  The Jacob Perkins' press, that printed the Penny Black/Red and the 2d Blue, in the British Library Philatelic Collections.
Authenticity: All items are guaranteed to be authentic (unless
stated otherwise) and as described. There is no time limit on this
guarantee - if you will find that the item sold is not authentic, or is
not as described, you may return it any time. |
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