Penny Black has become the first postage stamp in the whole world that was used in public postal system. Queen Victoria was depicted on this stamp. It was produced in 1840. This stamp is not a rare piece, because it was printed more than 68 million stamps. Practically all of them were printed in black color. Mint blocks were made without perforations. One mint of these stamps can be purchased for 4000 pounds.
This stamp was originally used only within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and was considered as local stamp. For this reason, the name of the country was not included within the design. This situation continued and with the agreement between the foreign post offices the sovereign’s effigy appeared on the stamp. Envelopes sold with paid postage did not include this stamp. The stamp included country’s name. In 1951, the special commemorative issue for the Festival of Britain included the name “Britain” incidentally. It could therefore be said that the name of the country then appeared for the first time on a stamp of the UK, even though the word “British” had appeared on British Empire Exhibition commemorative stamps in 1924.
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