The ‘Official’ Penny Black

Richard West recounts the story of the ‘Official’ Penny Black. After the issue was abandoned before being released, most of the stamps were destroyed, meaning the few remaining examples are highly desirable.

It is well known that the world’s first postage stamp was Great Britain’s Penny Black, which officially came into use on 6 May 1840. It was accompanied by the Twopenny Blue. These stamps were to prepay the postage on letters sent by the public. However, thoughts also turned to providing postage stamps for use by government departments. The initial concept was that any stamp for official use would be in a different colour from stamps in public use. However, this idea was quickly changed, it being decided just to adapt the ‘standard’ design by replacing the stars in the top two corners with the letters ‘V’ and ‘R’, standing for Victoria Regina (Figure 1). This was achieved simply by amending the roller used to create the printing plates. The issued stamps would…

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Stamp Collector (Digital) - 1 Issue, August 2024

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