The first postage stamps in the world

The article on the world's first postal stationery discussed the competition launched by the British Minister of Finance to design a label that could be affixed to envelopes and folded letters as postage. More than 2600 designs were submitted. Among them, the designs featuring decorations that made them difficult to counterfeit stood out the most.The article on the world's first postal stationery discussed the competition launched by the British Minister of Finance to design a label that could be affixed to envelopes and folded letters as postage. More than 2600 designs were submitted. Among them, the designs featuring decorations that made them difficult to counterfeit stood out the most. As an example from the many designs, a 1d in blue and a 1d in red were printed. The designer was Benjamin Cheverton, one of the £100 prize winners. The intention was to create two values ​​with the same design but in a different color. One of 1 pence and one of 2 pence, where the numeral 1 was to be replaced by the numeral 2. It was striking that not a single design had been submitted featuring an image of Queen Victoria, the monarch at the time. The security mark, the ornament, was adopted, but not the round or oval shape.

Another designer, also a prize winner, was Charles Whiting, who submitted square labels printed with two colors instead of one in a single pass. Security features were included here as well. However, these designs were rejected. The printing house Perkins Bacon & Petch, based in London, was commissioned to make preparations for the printing of gummed stamps. The order stated that sheets of 240 stamps were to be produced, 12 stamps horizontally and 20 stamps vertically. There was a reason for this. The English Pound (£1) was then divided into 240 pence, and 12 stamps horizontally represented the amount of 1 Shilling. Thus, it was easy to settle with the buyers of the stamps. The sheets would not be perforated. The printing costs per sheet of 240 stamps amounted to 2 pence, including the watermark paper used. The design was left to the printing house, and one of the printing house's employees designed the background of the stamp, as was also used for banknotes. The choice of an image of Queen Victoria was approved, and the printing house acquired an image designed by Henry Corbould, for which he was paid twelve pounds. It was not expected that the stamps would be used for mail outside Great Britain. Therefore, no country name was included in the design. The first three proofs, showing different stages of the initial design, were rejected. A new design was created, and proofs were produced of it as well. This design was approved. Father and son Charles and Frederick Heath, who were known at the time for the very solid work they delivered, were asked to act as engravers. The engravings were ready within two weeks, and the first proofs could be made in mid-January 1840. These proofs were rejected for technical reasons; the engravings were too fine, causing the printing ink (paint) to produce smudged prints too quickly. Father and son produced new engravings that did meet the requirements. Due to the need to produce new engravings, the deadline of January 10, 1840, could not be met. That was the date on which the uniform rate of 1 penny came into effect. In February 1840, the new proofs were submitted to Queen Victoria for approval. She expressed her delight with the stamps, and work could proceed. By order of Rowland Hill, letters were added to the lower corners of the stamps, an additional measure against forgery. Horizontally from A to L and vertically from A to T. And indeed, very few forgeries were found. The printing of the stamp sheets began on April 11, 1840. Sales through post offices started on May 1, 1840.

When the stamps were used on envelopes and folded letters, they were cancelled by means of a stamp impression in red ink. This ink could be removed quite easily, and therefore it was decided to change the color black to red, allowing the stamps to be cancelled with black ink from then on. The decision to change the color of the stamp from black to red was taken just six months after the issuance of the first stamps. On February 3, 1841, the last sheets printed in black left the printing house of Perkins Bacon & Petch, located on Fleet Street in London.