It’s hard to believe today, but this piece of adhesive paper launched in 1840 and featuring the profile of Queen Victoria ushered in the age of mass communication, allowing people from all walks of life to correspond with others across the United Kingdom! Prior to its invention, only the very wealthy could afford to exchange letters using messengers in the employ of the King, the Church, or the Universities; incredibly, it was the recipient who would have to pay for the delivery!
The Self-adhesive stamp, Invented by school teacher Roland Hill, was originally labelled as wild and preposterous by those running the national messenger service, but with the support of Robert Wallace, a respected politician, it soon paved the way for global communication. Now recognised and coveted by collectors all over the world, original Penny Blacks can be valued at anything from £100 to £6m depending on rarity, provenance, and condition.
Established in 1856, Stanley Gibbons can trace its origins back almost as far as the Penny Black and is the oldest Stamp dealer in the world! From the humble beginnings of a small stamp counter located at his father’s chemist shop, the business grew exponentially, and by the turn of the century, Stanley Gibbons was the leading light of stamp collecting, with bustling auctions, encyclopaedic catalogues and a publication which still leads the market today.
Stanley Gibbons is now one of the most established brands in collectables, maintaining its commitment to philately to this very day, recognised by the coveted ‘Royal Warrant’ for philately first awarded by King George V in 1914. Committed to modernising and introducing the hobby to a new generation, Stanley Gibbons are thrilled to work with VeVe, creating an exciting and unique opportunity for collectors which combines modern digital collecting with a traditional, physical twist!
Margin – The paper surrounding the edge of the stamp is called the margin. Penny Blacks were printed on large sheets in multiple quantities, to sell an individual stamp these would have had to be divided by cutting the paper with scissors, often long scissors had to be used which made for tricky cutting which is why some of the stamps had margins missing.
Imperforate Edges - The edge is Imperforate, lacking perforations or roulettes. The Penny Black stamps were cut out by hand leaving a chopped or irregular cut edge.
Postmark - The standard ‘Maltese Cross’ postmark struck in red or black ink to cancel the black stamp, and postmasters were expected to mix their own cancelling ink to a recipe prescribed by the post office. For one reason or another, however, not all postmasters managed to get the ink mix quite right and Maltese crosses are known struck in magenta, ruby, brown, orange and a number of other colours – even blue!
Corner Initials - There were 240 combinations (240, twenty rows of twelve, 1d. stamps meant a complete sheet was £1), starting with AA to AL at the top left and going down to TA-TL at the bottom right. The plates can be identified because the corner letters were individually ‘punched’ into them and no two pairs of letters are in exactly the same positions in their corner squares.
Watermark (not pictured) – Penny Black stamps were printed on a white-line machine engraved background with a simple crown watermark in the centre for forgery prevention.
The printing of the Penny Black began on 11 April at Perkins, Bacon & Petch's works in Whitefriars Street, London. By early May, the printers were producing some 600,000 stamps daily on five (later six) presses working day and night culminating in a total of over 68,000,000 Penny Blacks being printed by the end of January 1841.
In 2024, it's estimated that less than 5% of these stamps survive in any condition, with less than 1% being "fine" to "very fine" condition.
| Grade | Description | Est. Quantity |
| SG catalogue “fine examples” | Penny Black unused | < 1% |
| SG catalogue “fine examples” | Penny Black used | < 1% |
| Condition | 1840 | 1897 | 1958 | 2024 |
| Unused | 1d. | 7s.6d. | £24 | £12,500 |
| Used | 1d. | 3d. | 65s. | £375 |
Values based on Stanley Gibbons Commonwealth and British Empire Stamps 1840-1970 “SG2 1d. Black”.
The Penny Black remained an intrinsic part of UK culture long after its discontinuation, so much so, that even with Europe at War in WWII, GSM saw fit to ensure the centenary was marked! GSM remains the most popular philatelic title with readers from across the globe, below, the editor has handpicked a few articles from the archive we think you might enjoy!
Find out about how a certain 'slip of paper' revolutionised postal systems around the globe.
Adrian Keppel examines the evidence of who engraved the world's first postage stamp.
Edward Klempka looks at the early usage of the Penny Black as well as it's replacement, the 1d. red-brown.
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