Browse the Royal Mail eBay Store - Why Pay More?
The Postal Service Before the Penny Post and GB Stamps
Instead of a uniform pricing structure based on weight or size as we would recognise today, the price of sending mail was determined by the distance between sender and recipient in addition to the number of sheets of paper making up the correspondence. The charges were often marked on correspondence in handwriting together with marks to confirm distances being covered.
However the system was comparatively expensive and, understandably, frequent receivers of mail often resented paying all the delivery costs. You can see several pre-stamp covers in our online auctions section.
It wasn't until Rowland Hill (1795-1879), the man credited for Britain's great postal reform, that we looked to adopt a uniform postal system across Great Britain where the sender would pay and postage labels (stamps) could become the method to display prepayment.
Rowland Hill published the landmark "Post Office Reform: its Importance and Practicability" in 1837. The Queens head design proposed for the first postage stamps was based upon the Wyon City medal engraving of 1837 created by the famed coin engraver William Wyon. This design of Queen Victoria's profile was based on a sitting she did at the age of 15 before she became Queen.
Rowland Hill's proposed uniform penny postage began officially on Friday 10th January 1840 and the cost of sending a letter was set at a uniform 1d per ½oz to go to any address in Great Britain with the sender now bearing the charge.
It was three months after the uniform post began that work started on colour trials (now known as the Rainbow trials) for postage stamps. These would continue throughout the year. A stamp almost identical to the Penny Black we know today - but with the top corner letters VR - was printed for use by goverment departments but ultimately never issued.
Despite the continuing colour trials the Penny Black was officially issued on 6th May 1840, quickly followed by the twopenny blue stamp of similar design.
Stamps
Philately
GB Stamp Home Page More GB Stamp Articles
Back
