Queen Victoria, stamps of classic design
The term 'stamp' was first used in place of what we would now call a 'post mark' which is credited to Henry Bishop who ran the postal services in Britain in the early 1660s. In the 1830s, there was growing pressure for postal reforms prompting the publishing of the pamphlet 'Post Office Reform' by the businessman Rowland Hill, in which he advocated lower postal charges which would be uniform throughout Britain.Finally on 17th August 1839, Royal Assent was given to the 'Uniform Postage Act' and the stage was set to revolutionize the Post Office. Rowland Hill was appointed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to work on putting his ideas into effect.
Initially, postage rates were reduced in London for pre-paid mail, and limited to 4d per half ounce regardless of distance (within the British Isles) outside London.
This lasted from 5th December 1839 to 9th January 1840 at which point the postal rates became uniform across the whole of the British Isles. The rates at that time became 1d per half ounce if pre-paid or double if unpaid The postage stamp as we know it was suggested by Rowland Hill to the Duncannon Committee on 13th February 1837 and a competition run by the Treasury on 23rd August 1839 invited suitable designs to be submitted.
Penny Black
None of the entries was considered entirely suitable, though they probably influenced the final design. The famous 'Penny Black' design was a combination of the Queens head for familiarity and recognizability, the engine-turned background to deter forgers, the value and of course the purpose (postage).The first stamps were officially issued on 6th May 1840 and consisted of the famous 'Penny Black' and the two pence in blue. At the same time, new handstamps were introduced for the purpose of 'obliterating' the stamps to stop them from being cleaned and re-used. These handstamps took the form commonly referred to as the 'Maltese Cross' and they were originally used to cancel the stamps using red ink. The handstamps were all hand-made, and the ink was made by local postmasters from a recipe provided for them, so the results contained much variety.
Add to that, postmasters were required to use the red for the maltese cross, various shades of blue-green for back stamps and black for date stamps and other markings, so through the course of the day, a handstamp could end up with a mixture of coloured ink on it!
Colour change
There were still worries about unscrupulous persons cleaning and re-using stamps however, and In February 1841, the red canceling ink was phased out in favour of black and the black ink used to print the penny stamp was replaced with a new red-brown ink containing prussiate of potash to make it 'fugitive' to show up cleaning attempts.A new fugitive ink was also produced for the two pence value but since it was also in blue and it was desired to be able to distinguish the new productions from the old, the design of the stamps was altered adding lines above 'Two Pence' and below 'Postage'. This new design was released March 1841.
As a side effect of the new fugitive inks, a chemical reaction caused varying degrees of bluing of the paper. Although sometimes producing very attractive results with the penny (varyingly) red-brown stamps, this bluing was considered undesirable and was eventually eliminated in 1857. This simple classic design survived nearly 40 years before being replaced, and elements of the design such as the size and monarch's head survive still, a real tribute to the designer.
The rest of the then British Empire soon copied the concept of the postage stamp. the much lampooned Mulready cover illustrated well the importance of communication in maintaining and supporting that empire. The mail was a key part of that communication.
Similarly Europe and the Americas soon had their own stamps, though for a while, British Victorian stamps were used in many places abroad.
Embossed
Higher values were produced later for mail abroad, the one shilling green in 1847, 10d brown (1848) and 6d mauve/lilac (1854). These were unusual in several respects:- They were basically octagonal in shape,
- they were produced individually by embossing, and
- the first two values were produced on Dickinson 'silk thread' paper, the 6d value being printed on
paper watermarked with the letters VR.
Because of the method of production, spacing was very variable and stamps sometimes even overlapped, the silk threads that should appear as two per stamp 5mm apart with 20mm to the next pair sometimes showed up as two threads 20mm apart.
These embossed are sought after 'cut square' with 'cut to shape' being worth much less. Collectors Beware: Similar designs were also used for postal stationary so make sure you check that the designs do not include 'date plugs', that the 10d and 1/- values are on silk-thread paper and that the 6d value does have a watermark
Perforation
Originally the stamps had to be cut from the sheets with scissors and the close spacing and uneven layout meant that stamps were generally cut into and the process was inconvenient and caused delays at the post offices. The businessman Henry Archer submitted plans to the post office in 1848 to 'roulette' the stamps as an aid to separating them.This led to a series of experiments which culminated in the first official production in January 1854 of stamps perforated with gauge 16. Due to problems with broken pins and excessively weakened paper, the gauge 16 perforators were phased out in favour of gauge 14 during the first half of 1855
Tip, the 16 refers to the number of perforations along the bottom of the stamps produced at the time, so if you want to know if you have a 'perf 14' or a 'perf 16' stamp and don't have a gauge with you, then simply count them!
Watermarks
Up until this point, the low-value stamps had all been printed on paper with a simple 'Small Crown' watermark. However in May 1855 a new watermark with a 'Large Crown' was introduced. The similarity of timing with the change of perforation and watermark both occurring in 1855 means that you can get all 4 permutations:the stamps with:- Pre-1855 being small-crown, perf-16,
Post-1855 being large-crown, perf-14 and
1855 stamps being either of above but also small-crown, perf-14 or large-crown, perf-16 (these latter 2 types being rarer).
Extra Complications
The above represents a very simplified early history of British stamps. The next layer of complication comes with considering the printing plates used.Plates:
When the first Penny Blacks were produced, it was an infant technology and also the reduced postal rates produced an explosion of mail. The result was that the first plate used to produce the penny value suffered heavy damage as it had not been 'hardened'. Repairs were needed and by mid 1840 all stamps of plate 1(a)had been repaired by 're-entry' giving rise to what is termed plate 1b.Ten other plates were used to produce penny blacks, plate 11 being rare in black but fairly common in 'red'. The planned transition to the 'red' issues meant that printing in black had to be stopped when there were sufficient stocks, and printing in red started (30th December 1840) to build up stocks for the planned release date (10th February 1841). Unfortunately, the stocks of black stamps were insufficient and it was necessary to switch back to black-stamp production.
Because of this, plate 11 that so far had only produced red stamps, was used on the 1st and 2nd of February to produce 700 sheets in black. Plate 1b, 2, 5, 8, 9 and 10 were also printed in both red and black and 'red' stamps printed on these plates together with plate 11 are referred to as red-brown from 'black plates'.
Plates 12 onwards were only used for printing the red stamps. The two-pence value had two plates before the change in design and 4 more after (until the next change).
Alphabet:
All these low-value stamps had check letters in the bottom corners that indicated the plate positions with the left hand letter indicating the row and lettered A-L (12 letters to make 1/- per row). The right hand letter indicated the column and ran from A-T (20 shillings in £1).Up to 1852, all the these stamps used the same small font or 'alphabet' (referred to as Alphabet I or Alph.I ) subsequently, Alph.II, Alph.III and Alph.IV were used, getting progressively larger with Alph.IV being hand-engraved on the plate!
Dies:
Die-I was used for all the two-pence plates and the penny plates up to plate 204 and 6 reserve plates. After that, Die-II was used to produce a further 60 plates.Cancellations:
The Maltese Cross was used until 1844 or so. In London from 1843 there were variants of the Maltese Cross in use with numbers 1 to 12 in the center to indicate postal districts. In 1844 the design changed radically to the use of a 'barred oval' for England, a 'barred rectangle' for Scotland and a 'barred diamond' for Northern Ireland.The first cancellations of the Maltese Cross were in red, but phased over to black from 1841. Other colours of cancellations such as green Irish types, or various shades of blue are often found though. It is also possible to find 1844 cancellations on 1840 penny blacks and two penny blues!
Other postal markings have been used to cancel stamps contrary to regulations and Telegraph cancellations and private pre-cancels can also be found. Some of these combinations can be very rare. If you want to be able to spot a bargain, check out our information page for references.
Victorian stamps are antiques.
Their numbers will not increase, no more will ever be made. The number of collectors searching for them however is likely to increase, and the laws of supply and demand dictate that prices will rise. Victorian stamps would make a good investment as well as providing hours of enjoyment as collectible items in their own right.Auctions
Auctions have long been the place to pick up a bargain. Now, in this electronic age, you can do it from the comfort of your armchair (or the beach). We aim to show you where you can find such items, as well as philatelic supplies and also to give you a few tips and warnings along the way. You can use the 'Navigation' links at the top-left of the page to find the sections that interest you,
or get further Information.