Penny Black

Penny Black - The First Postage Stamp
From Michael Breen, former About.com Guide
The Penny Black ...

Penny Black stamps
The history and value of first adhesive postal stamp: the penny black stamp ...

The Penny Black Stamp was not perforated. In fact, perforation was not introdued until 1854. Because of wear and tear, eleven different plates were used during the life cycle of the Penny Black.
Full List of Rare Stamps
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Penny Black: The black 1-penny British stamp issued May 6, 1840, bearing the portrait of Queen Victoria. It is the world's first adhesive stamp issued for the prepayment of postage.

Penny Black. The world's first postage stamp, the one-penny stamp issued by Great Britain in May 1840.
Perfins. Stamps punched with "perforated initials" or other designs and used generally by commercial firms in order to deter theft.

Penny Black - world's first postage stamp
Penny Blue - Trial printings from a penny black plate
Two pence blue - issued for second rate step, at same time as Penny Black
VR official - first official stamp
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The Penny Black - World's First Postage Stamp
Rowland Hill, who is generally regarded as the father of the postage stamp, was the motive force behind the issuance of the Penny Black, but his campaign was not for stamps per se, ...

The "Penny Black" of Great Britain issued on May 6, 1840, is the first government-issued postage stamp ...

Figure 3. A Penny Black stamp, Great Britain Scott 1. The notation for one penny is "1d" because it is one-twelfth of a shilling. Click on image to enlarge.

Over 68 million Penny Black were printed by Perkins, Bacon & Petch. Charles and Frederick Heath were the engravers for the stamp.
There were no perforations between stamps as seen today. That is the stamp was imperforate.

In a sense this "Penny Black" affected all future British stamp issues. Being the world's first postage stamp, and a British invention, it did not occur to the authorities to put the name of the country on it.

Penny Black: nickname for the world's first adhesive postage stamp, 1-penny black Queen Victoria stamp, issued in Great Britain on May 6,1840.
Penny Blue: blue trial sheets of Great Britain's 1d stamp, Dec.

The first stamp to be issued, in England on 6 May 1840, was the Penny Black. It's called the Penny Black because it cost a penny, and it was black. The face on the stamp is Queen Victoria, who was Queen at that time.

Queen Victoria was the face on the first stamp ever issued (the Penny Black). However, just because a stamp is old doesn't always make it valuable.

The first adhesive postage stamp was printed in the United Kingdom in 1840, and is known as the Penny Black. The stamp can only rarely be found unused today but used examples can still be found with relative ease.

The First Postage Stamp - The Penny Black
The first regularly issued government postage stamp was in England (Great Britain, actually). It did not show the name of the country because it was not necessary.

Great Britain 1840 Penny Black stamp used May 2, 1840 to Bedlington - Sold by Harmers for $2,415,000 , March 1991
Sweden 1857 3 skilling Banco Yellow - Sold by Feldman for $2,270,000, November 1996 ...

Intaglio - Line-engraved or recess printing, as used for the 'penny black'.
Inv. - Abbreviation for inverted; usually referring to the watermark.

See also: Stamp, Cover, Commemorative, Error, First day