Stamp Collecting - The Penny Black Stamp
Posted: Sunday, December 21, 2008
by Elizabeth Nelson
http://www.remedyforeczemablog.com
The revolutionary Penny Black was first issued in 1840 and named so, due to it costing one penny and made entirely with black ink. This stamp was the world's earliest prepaid, gummed postage stamp of a public postal system.
It was issued in the U.K. and Ireland in May 1840 and planned to be in use from 6 May of 1840. Initially, however not all of the Post Offices throughout the U.K. received official issues of the stamps except in London where all of the Post Offices were furnished with the this stamp.
The Penny Black is quite rare and is a fantastic stamp to collect and is almost sure to feature in a veteran collectors album.
Prior to the creation of the penny black and the new form of postage, postal fees were predominantly based on the weight of the package/envelope and the distance involved for each. The tarif was actually paid by the addressee and not the sender.
With the new postal system and the penny black the payment of the postage was the responsibility of the sender and the complexity of the individual postage calculation was reduced with a more straight-forward low rate.
Some rarer Penny Black Collections include:
Guyana Complete Set 150th Anniversary Postal Service
Guyana Complete Set 150th Anniversary Transportation
Kenya (1990) 150th Anniversary Stamp.
Back in 2000, the Penny Black was recreated using the original printing press by the Royal Mail. This event took place at the Stamp Show in London. The British Library philatelic collections provided the Perkins-Bacon printing press.
The Penny Black is an exciting stamp to have in a stamp collection as well as other great collectables such as Commemorative Stamps.
It can be very difficult to find high quality, value for money stamps. For great tips and resources, please visit: www.stampsalbum.com
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