Penny Red Queen Victoria issued
in 1850/1854
World first perforation 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.
Perforations, in an experimental gauge 16, first came into use
in 1850 and were officially adopted in 1854, also in gauge 16.
The experimental perforated issue can be distinguished from the
general issue as the latter was applied to a stamp that used a
different alphabet type for the identifying letters. In January
1855, the perforation size was changed from 16 to 14 as it was
found that the sheets were coming apart too easily; the reduced
size allowed the sheets to remain intact until pressure was
applied to force the separation. The upper corners of each stamp
were now occupied by the same identifying letters in reverse.
Plate configuration:
FJ
The upper corners
were occupied by stars.
Each stamp had unique letters AA, AB etc. in its lower corners,
so that its position on the plate could be identified:
Plate configuration
AA AB AC AD AE AF AG AH AI AJ AK AL
BA BB BC BD BE BF BG BH BI BJ BK BL
• • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • •
SA SB SC SD SE SF SG SH SI SJ SK SL
TA TB TC TD TE TF TG TH TI TJ TK TL
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.
|
Date of production |
1841–1879 |
Printer |
Perkins, Bacon & Co |
Perforation |
- 1841: none
- 1850: 16 gauge
(experimental)
- 1854: 16 gauge
- 1855: 14 gauge
|
Depicts |
Queen Victoria |
Face value |
1d |
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.
In January 1855, the perforation size was changed from 16 to 14
as it was found that the sheets were coming apart too easily.
The reduced size allowed the sheets to remain intact until
pressure was applied to force the separation.
The stamps were printed in sheets of 240 (20 rows of 12 stamps),
so one row cost 1 shilling and a complete sheet one pound. This,
240 stamps per sheet, configuration continued with all British
postage stamps issued until 1971 when decimal currency was
introduced when the sheet size was changed to 200, (20 rows of
10 stamps) making the lowest value denomination (half penny) one
pound per sheet.
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
-
10 February 1841 -
first issue: colour of 1d stamp changed from black to
red-brown.
-
24 February 1854 -
perforations 16 introduced.
-
January 1855 -
perforation size changed from 16 to 14.
-
15 May 1855 -
watermark changed from small crown to large crown.
-
1858 - letters in
all four corners, colour lake-red
-
1 April 1864 -
letters on all four corners and plate number engraved on
each stamp from plate 71 onwards.
-
27 October 1879 -
last plate (225) put to press.
-
3 December 1879 -
contract to print the Penny Red formally ended.
The Jacob Perkins' press, that printed
the Penny Black/Red and the 2d Blue, in the British Library
Philatelic Collections. |