Penny Black Postage Stamp-Certificate of Authenticit (03/18/2011)...

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Penny Black Postage Stamp-Certificate of Authenticity

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Penny Black Postage Stamp-Certificate of Authenticity

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Sold Date: 03/18/2011
Channel: Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category: Stamps

For your stamp collecting pleasure: THE WORLD'S FIRST POSTAGE STAMP ~ The 1840 "PENNY BLACK" in a plastic folio. The folio contains a Certificate of Authenticity by the issuer, The American Historic Society. The seller is the original owner, has been in storage in a smoke-free home and has never been handled since purchased over 15 years ago.
The History and Value of the First Adhesive Postal Stamp: The Penny Black Stamp

The Penny Black is the moniker of the world’s first adhesive stamp used in public postal system. The idea of an adhesive stamp indicates that a letter has been paid. The first postage stamp was proposed to reform the British postal system by Rowland Hill in 1837.
On May 1, 1840 the British postal service sold the first Penny Blacks, and continued to issue the stamps until 1841. The stamp cost 1 pence and was darkly colored, hence the name Penny Black. Nowadays, it is considered as one of the rarest British stamp.

It was widely issued in United Kingdom. All London post offices received the new official stamps but other offices in the country did not. One of the offices like Bath offered the stamp unofficially after May 2.

The inscription “postage” appeared at the top of the stamp and “one penny” at the bottom. The words "one penny" indicates the amount of transmission in which it was affixed on the envelope. The background of the stamp consists of finely engraved engine turnings.
The two upper corners contained two star-like designs and the lower corners contained letters designating the position of the stamp on the sheet. The sheets were printed by Perkins Bacon.

The imperforated Penny Black stamp were printed in sheets of 240 with 12 stamps across and 20 stamps down and had to be individually cut by hand. As the name suggests, the stamp was printed in black ink.

The Penny Black was used only for a year. It was originally cancelled with a Monarch cross stamp in black ink until it was quickly determined that the black ink was hard to see, the black ink was replaced with red ink.