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First Printing of Postage Stamps
The first stamps were imperforate as the perforating machine was invented in 1847. The stamps were printed in sheets of two hundred and forty as there were 240 pence to one pound. A complete sheet of Penny Blacks, therefore, cost exactly one pound and a sheet of twopenny stamps – two pounds. The stamps had no text showing the country of origin; it was not necessary as these were the first stamps in the world. They were originally intended only for the prepayment of postage on British territory. Great Britain has kept the tradition of not giving the country’s name and showing only the ruler’s portrait up to the present day. This is the privilege of the country which gave the world the first stamps.
When text was introduced, the word ‘Postage’ was imprinted above the profile of Queen Victoria and, on the bottom of the stamps was the value – ‘One Penny’ or ‘Two Pence’. The bottom corners of the stamps proved interesting. In each horizontal row of twelve stamps, the same letters were always in the bottom left-hand corner – in the first row, the letter ‘A’, in the second row, the letter ‘B’ and so on through the alphabet; twenty different letters for twenty rows of twelve stamps each. In the bottom right-hand corner was inserted, from left to right, one letter of the alphabet after the other – A, B, C, D and continuing. A horizontal pair, or strip of three, had the same letter in the left-hand corner of each stamp, a vertical pair or strip had the same letter in the bottom right-hand corner. It was, therefore, possible to identify the exact position of an individual stamp within a full sheet.
Neither the post-masters nor the general public were especially careful when cutting the non-imperforated stamps from the sheets. The space between the stamps was small and it easily happened that the scissors cut into the stamps. All copies untouched by scissors are worth considerably more than carelessly cut stamps. A horizontal or vertical pair or strip has a higher value than individual stamps and the value of larger blocks increases almost in a geometrical line.
Specialists distinguish eleven printing plates of the Penny Black and two plates of the Twopenny Blue. A number of specific plate defects and ‘retouches’ are known. In some cases the print of the Twopenny Blue shines through strongly, so that the portrait of the Queen can be seen more or less distinctly on the reverse of the stamp. This is called an ivory head.
Special handstamps in the shapes of a Maltese Cross were produced for the first stamps. According to instructions, every stamp had to be cancelled individually. At first the colour used for cancellations was red, but when it was discovered that the red ink could be removed and the stamps re-used, black cancellations were experimentally introduced in 1840. By 1841, black ink was used consistently for cancellations. Other colours can be found for when post-masters ran out of black ink, they used whatever was available. The rarest of these is the yellow handstamp. As a safeguard against forgeries, the first stamps were printed on paper with a watermark. It is a simple design of the small Royal Crown and one watermark always fitted each stamp in a sheet.
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