History of the Postage Stamp

Dear Sir, Seeing that Ballantyne wrote a book called "Post Haste", which I unfortunately have not had the opportunity of reading, I thought you might be interested in a little information on the world's first postage stamp.

On May 6, 1840, Great Britain issued the first Penny Blacks, which were one penny stamps of a black color. On the stamp is a portrait of Queen Victoria, and since then it has been tradition for Great Britain not to print the name of their country on the stamp, but to put a small picture of the Queen on the top right of the stamp. There were several million Penny Blacks printed, and though they are worth quite a bit, they are not considered rare. Unused Penny Blacks are worth $4,500, used, $270. For a period of time after they were issued, people would adorn vases, fans and other items with them. The Penny Black had gum on the back, and was not perforated. Perforations were developed sometime later, presumably to avoid having to cut sheets of stamps. Stamps prior to the Penny Black were not the postage stamps we know nowadays, but were similiar to rubber stamps, because they were merely ink stamped onto the letter. The Penny Black was followed by the Two Penny Blue and the Penny Red.

I hope you have found this of interest. -K.S.

Thank you very much for your interesting history of the postage stamp. I definitely found this of interest.

AGB, Joshua Titus