Penny Red
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The Penny Red was a British postage stamp, issued in 1841. It succeeded the
Penny Black The Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public Mail, postal system. It was first issued in the United Kingdom on 1 May 1840 but was not valid for use until 6 May. The stamp features a profile of Queen Victoria. ...
and continued as the main type of
postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the f ...
in the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into one sovereign state, established by the Acts of Union 1800, Acts of Union in 1801. It continued in this form until ...
until 1879, with only minor changes to the design during that time. The colour was changed from black to red because of difficulty in seeing a cancellation mark on the Penny Black; a black cancellation mark was readily visible on a Penny Red.


History

Initially, some of the same plates used to print the Penny Black were used to print the Penny Red. About 21 billion Penny Reds were printed by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. The stamps were printed in sheets of 240 (20 rows of 12 stamps), so one row cost 1
shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currency, currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 1 ...
and a complete sheet one
pound Pound or Pounds may refer to: Units * Pound (currency), various units of currency * Pound sterling, the official currency of the United Kingdom * Pound (mass), a unit of mass * Pound (force), a unit of force * Rail pound, in rail profile * A bas ...
. This configuration of 240 stamps per sheet continued with all low-value British postage stamps issued until
decimalisation Decimalisation or decimalization (see American and British English spelling differences, spelling differences) is the conversion of a system of currency or of weights and measures to units related by Power of 10, powers of 10. Most countries have ...
in 1971, when the sheet size was changed to 200 (20 rows of 10 stamps), making the lowest value denomination (half new penny) one pound per sheet. The sheets had no
perforation A perforation is a small hole in a thin material or web. There is usually more than one perforation in an organized fashion, where all of the holes collectively are called a ''perforation''. The process of creating perforations is called perfor ...
s and stamps had to be cut from the sheet using scissors, as with the Penny Black and the early printings of the
Two pence blue The Two Penny Blue or The Two Pence Blue was the world's second official postage stamp, produced in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and issued after the Penny Black. Initial printing took place from 1 May 1840, and in all 6,460 ...
. Each stamp had unique letters AA, AB etc. in its lower corners, so that its position on the plate could be identified: : The upper corners were occupied by stars. Perforations, in an experimental
gauge Gauge ( ) may refer to: Measurement * Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments * Gauge (firearms) * Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire ** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, especia ...
16, first came into use in 1850 and were officially adopted in 1854, also in gauge 16. The experimental perforated issue can be distinguished from the general issue as the latter was applied to a stamp that used a different alphabet type for the identifying letters. In January 1855, the perforation size was changed from 16 to 14 as it was found that the sheets were coming apart too easily; the reduced size allowed the sheets to remain intact until pressure was applied to force the separation. The upper corners of each stamp were now occupied by the same identifying letters in reverse.


Plate numbers

On 1 April 1864, the stamp was issued with the plate number engraved in the design, in the left and right side lace work. At this time, the stars in the top corners were also replaced with the same check letters as used in the lower corners, but in reverse order. Because of wear, over 400 different plates were used to print the Penny Red. Two different basic
watermark A watermark is an identifying image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations i ...
s were used for the paper, small crown (on the early issues) and large crown, introduced on 15 May 1855. The first stamps printed on the large crown watermarked paper showed two small vertical lines in the central portion of the crown (Type 1). Later printings showed a revised watermark on which these central lines are not present (Type 2). Stamps from some of the individual plate numbers, such as plate 77, are very rare and in 2016, an example from this plate was auctioned for £495,000.


Withdrawal

The era of the Penny Red came to its close at the end of 1879, along with Perkins Bacon's contract. It was superseded by the Penny Venetian Red printed by
De La Rue De La Rue plc (, ) is a British company headquartered in Basingstoke, England, that produces secure digital and physical protections for goods, trade, and identities in 140 countries. It sells to governments, central banks, and businesses. Its ...
, which was in use for a little over a year before being succeeded in turn by the long-lived Penny Lilac. Since then, the stamp has become in demand amongst
stamp collectors Stamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps and related objects. It is an area of philately, which is the study (or combined study and collection) of stamps. It has been one of the world's most popular hobbies since the late nineteenth ...
.


Chronology

* 10 February 1841 – first issue: colour of 1d stamp changed from black to red-brown. * 1848 – Plates 70 and 71 were rouletted by Henry Archer * 1850 – Some Alphabet 1 plates were perforated 16 by Henry Archer * 24 February 1854 – perforations 16 introduced on all Alphabet II plates. * January 1855 – perforation size changed from 16 to 14. * 15 May 1855 – watermark changed from small crown to large crown. * August 1855 – Alphabet III introduced * 1 April 1864 – Letters in all four corners and plate number engraved on each stamp from plate 71 onwards. * 27 October 1879 – last plate (225) put to press. * 3 December 1879 – contract to print the Penny Red formally ended.http://www.pennystars.comPenny Red at pennystars. Retrieved 10 November 11.


See also

*
Archer Roulette For postage stamps, separation is the means by which individual stamps are made easily detachable from each other. Methods of separation include: # perforation: cutting rows and columns of small holes # rouletting: small horizontal and vert ...
*
List of British postage stamps A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, bu ...
* List of notable postage stamps *
Postage stamps and postal history of Great Britain Postage stamps and postal history of the United Kingdom surveys postal history and the postage stamps issued by that country (known in philately, philatelic circles as "United Kingdom, Great Britain"), and its various historical territories unt ...


References


Citations


General and cited references

*
Stanley Gibbons Ltd The Stanley Gibbons Group plc is a company quoted on the London Stock Exchange specialising in the retailing of collectable postage stamps and similar products. The group is incorporated in London. The company is a major stamp dealer and phila ...
, ''Specialised Stamp Catalogue Volume 1: Queen Victoria'' * J.B. Seymour & C. Gardiner-Hill ''The Postage Stamps of Great Britain'' Part 1 (Royal Philatelic Society London, 3rd. edition, 1967) * W.R.D. Wiggins (Ed.) ''The Postage Stamps of Great Britain'' Part 2 (Royal Philatelic Society London, 2nd edition, 1962)


External links


Examples of Penny Reds from the Phillips Collection
(via
Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Launched for public access in 2001, the service allows users to go "back in ...
)
Penny Red Collector

Plate 77


{{Queen Victoria, state=collapsed 1841 introductions Postage stamps of the United Kingdom Queen Victoria on stamps