2016-07-22 Fri

After a lot of efforts by Rowland Hill, finally in 1840, the postal reform that he and others had campaigned for in Great Britain was finally executed. As per the new law, Postal rates were reduced drastically and the sender would be bearing the charges instead of the receiver. Penny Black and the Two-Penny Blue were issued to serve this purpose.

A red ink was to be used for cancellation and from 6th May, 1840, officials started analysing if the cancellations can be removed easily. On May 21, it was officially announced that chemical agents were being used to get rid of the cancellations.

A 1d die with three impressions was made and the upper right corner of the images was covered in wax so that they were not used for postage. This die was not enough for testing and hence a 12 impression die was prepared. Test stamps were issued in different colours (rainbow trails) till December 1840.

The 175th anniversary of the Penny Red was celebrated in a special way by Royal Mail with a commemorative sheet including penny red stamps and 10 different versions of the rainbow stamps.

A presentation sheet with 20 different red coloured stamps was created by Joshua Bacon’s son Perkins on Aug. 31, 1840. Some of these stamps were crossed out as they were not considered to be suitable.

It was finally decided that the new stamps would be in light red and light blue and defaced with black ink. Experiments were carried out with various shades of rose, red, and brown. The effectiveness of cancellation inks was determined with the help of various handstamps.

After some more experiments, Potassium ferrocyanide was used on the stamps that would be destroyed by any substance that might be used to remove the cancel. The side effect was that this chemical would turn the paper blue. It was then tested in three ways, incorporation into the paper, incorporation into the red printing ink, and dipping the printed stamp into a solution of the chemical.

Some Prussiate of potash was finally added to the ink used to print the Penny Red. Paper turned blue in the areas where the red ink was heavily applied but remained white where the red ink was light.

Since the portrait area on the back side of the stamp appears to have an ivory colour, they are termed as “ivory heads”.

This problem was resolved in 1857 when the formula of the ink was changed.

On Feb. 10, 1841, The Penny Red was issued and the new Two-Penny Blue was issued on 13th March.