the artist Henry Corbould, taking his inspiration from the relief portrait on the City Medal designed by William Wyon. It was engraved by Charles Heath and his son Frederick, while the words 'Postage' above the portrait and 'One Penny' below it were engraved by William Salter. The stamps were printed by the security printers Perkins, Bacon and Petch, on handmade watermarked paper (the watermark was a small crown) supplied by Mr Stacey Wise. The finished product was introduced to postmasters at the end of April 1840, with clear instructions on how the stamps should be issued and cancelled. A sample of two Penny Blacks was attached to the instructions, so that they could become familiar with the new postal currency. They also received an example of prepaid postal stationery, an envelope and lettersheet design by William Mulready containing images of elephants, lions, Britannia and people engrossed in their mail deliveries, an illustration rapidly and widely parodied by London stationers, the parodies themselves forming the basis of many new collections.
The stampsâthe Penny Black and the Twopence Blueâwent on sale on Friday 1 May 1840, along with prepaid envelopes, and a revolution got under way. They were not intended for use before Wednesday 6 May, although some were issued early. 'Great bustle at the Stamp Office,' Rowland Hill recorded in his diary on the evening of 1 May. On the following day he noted, '£2,500 worth of stamps sold yesterday'. By 6 May 22,993 sheets of 240 stamps each had been issued to 253 post offices, and on 22 May, Hill recorded, 'The demand for the labels is enormous, the printers supply more than half a million per day, and even this is not enough.'
There was a problem almost immediately: the red cancellations issued in a Maltese Cross design were easily removed and the stamps used again. 'All sorts of tricks are being played by the public,' Rowland Hill observed, and much time and effort was spent on finding an answer. Additives appeared on the stamps to hold the ink, and the red ink was later changed to black. But in the end another solution was found: the Penny Black would be replaced in February 1841 by another stamp that would be less open to abuse: the Penny Red. The problem with the Penny Red was, it didn't carry the same weight of history, it was lighter in weight and didn't feel the same in the hand, and it wasn't beautiful.
In 1843 Rowland Hill went to work for the London & Brighton Railway, but he returned to postal reform three years later, and his endeavours transformed the landscape. He campaigned among householders and carpenters to have his letterboxes installed, he greatly increased the number of roadside posting boxes, and he introduced the concept of London postal districts. By the time of his retirement in 1864, half the world had adopted his reforms; no one, with the possible exception of the railway Stephensons, contributed more to the global communication of ideas.
And beyond this, Hill may be credited with inventing an entirely new hobby. Sheets of Penny Blacks and Twopenny Blues contained 240 stamps, and to limit forgeries and enable the tracing of portions of a sheet, each stamp had a letter in the two bottom corners. The rows running down the sheet had the same letter in the left corner, while the right corner progressed alphabetically. The first row went AA, AB, AC and so on, and thirteen rows down it went MA, MB, MC ... There were twenty horizontal rows of twelve, so that the last stamp at the bottom right-hand corner was TL. People who got a lot of post thought it would be fun to collect the set.
One of the first mentions of the new hobby appeared in a German magazine in 1845, which noted, much in the manner of comedian Bob Newhart describing Raleigh's attempt to promote tobacco, how the English post office sold 'small square pieces of paper bearing the head of the Queen, and these are stuck on the letter to be franked'. The writer observed that the
The stampsâthe Penny Black and the Twopence Blueâwent on sale on Friday 1 May 1840, along with prepaid envelopes, and a revolution got under way. They were not intended for use before Wednesday 6 May, although some were issued early. 'Great bustle at the Stamp Office,' Rowland Hill recorded in his diary on the evening of 1 May. On the following day he noted, '£2,500 worth of stamps sold yesterday'. By 6 May 22,993 sheets of 240 stamps each had been issued to 253 post offices, and on 22 May, Hill recorded, 'The demand for the labels is enormous, the printers supply more than half a million per day, and even this is not enough.'
There was a problem almost immediately: the red cancellations issued in a Maltese Cross design were easily removed and the stamps used again. 'All sorts of tricks are being played by the public,' Rowland Hill observed, and much time and effort was spent on finding an answer. Additives appeared on the stamps to hold the ink, and the red ink was later changed to black. But in the end another solution was found: the Penny Black would be replaced in February 1841 by another stamp that would be less open to abuse: the Penny Red. The problem with the Penny Red was, it didn't carry the same weight of history, it was lighter in weight and didn't feel the same in the hand, and it wasn't beautiful.
In 1843 Rowland Hill went to work for the London & Brighton Railway, but he returned to postal reform three years later, and his endeavours transformed the landscape. He campaigned among householders and carpenters to have his letterboxes installed, he greatly increased the number of roadside posting boxes, and he introduced the concept of London postal districts. By the time of his retirement in 1864, half the world had adopted his reforms; no one, with the possible exception of the railway Stephensons, contributed more to the global communication of ideas.
And beyond this, Hill may be credited with inventing an entirely new hobby. Sheets of Penny Blacks and Twopenny Blues contained 240 stamps, and to limit forgeries and enable the tracing of portions of a sheet, each stamp had a letter in the two bottom corners. The rows running down the sheet had the same letter in the left corner, while the right corner progressed alphabetically. The first row went AA, AB, AC and so on, and thirteen rows down it went MA, MB, MC ... There were twenty horizontal rows of twelve, so that the last stamp at the bottom right-hand corner was TL. People who got a lot of post thought it would be fun to collect the set.
One of the first mentions of the new hobby appeared in a German magazine in 1845, which noted, much in the manner of comedian Bob Newhart describing Raleigh's attempt to promote tobacco, how the English post office sold 'small square pieces of paper bearing the head of the Queen, and these are stuck on the letter to be franked'. The writer observed that the
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