Penny Black
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The Penny Black was the first stamp to ever be created. Before that, people who received the letter or parcel had to pay the postman at the door. This was unfair if what you received was something you didn’t want or need. The people were quite annoyed at this so they wanted a change. Many people thought of different ways to send the post until Sir Rowland Hill came up with the idea of "stamp". It was just a small piece of paper, stuck onto the top right corner of the envelope. The stamp was invented in the Victorian era so it would be rightful for Queen Victoria to be on the first face on the stamp. It was called "Penny Black" because it costed 1 penny and it had a black background. It was issued in Britain on the 1st May 1840 and it was in circulation until February 1841.
Although the Penny Black had many advantages, there were a few downsides to it too. For example, before the Penny Black was invented, the cancelations that were used instead of the stamps on the enveloppes, named the Maltese Cross, were coloured black. The Maltese Cross continued to be used to cancel the Penny Black stamp which was a problem as a black cancellation on a black background was not clearly visible. This lead to the Maltese Cross being coloured red. There were disadvantages to this as well. Even though it was coloured red the new Maltese Cross was still hard to see and also it was easily removed. This meant that the same stamp could have been used many times instead of just once.
The post office finally gave up and stopped issuing the Penny Black. Instead they started making the Penny Red, which was completely identical to the Penny Black except that it was coloured red. This meant that they could now use the black Maltese Cross again as it would now be visible on a red background.
In my opinion Penny Black, although had a few drawbacks, was one of the greatest inventions. It totally changed the posting system in the world and helped many people to be able to afford communicating and sending letters worldwide.
Published on 30 Apr 2015 | By Aram (11 y.o.)