An example of the world’s first postage stamp, the Penny Black, is up for auction and could fetch £6 million.
Dating from 1840, the item is “the earliest securely dated example of the first postage stamp,” according to Sotheby’s.
The adhesive stamp, which features a profile of Queen Victoria, is attached to a document dated April 10, 1840, from the archive of British postal service reformer Robert Wallace, a Scottish politician.
The Penny Black, which introduced a flat rate, was used from May 6, 1840.
Before that, the recipient paid the postage cost.
“This is the first ever stamp, the precursor to all stamps, and unequivocally the most important piece of philatelic history to exist,” Henry House, head of Sotheby’s Treasures Sale, said.
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“Though there are many hugely important stamps in collections both public and private around the world, this is the stamp that started the postage system as we know it.”
The stamp is one of three Penny Blacks believed to have survived from the very first sheet of printed stamps. The other two are part of the collection at the British Postal Museum.
“The fact that Wallace signed, dated and issued his note ...gives support to the fact that this is the very first example of a postage stamp, which of course every country now uses,” owner Alan Holyoake, a businessman and philatelist, said.
“Isn’t the stamp beautiful?” he added. “The design is a world icon, a design that our current Queen still uses.
“Prior to the introduction of cheap postage, it cost a fortune to send a letter – so unless you were privileged or wealthy, communication wasn’t really possible. Suddenly, the postage stamp just took off. It was the door to mass communication.”
Holyoake came into possession of the Wallace document some 10 years ago. He undertook a three-year research project to determine its authenticity and the stamp has certificates fromThe Royal Philatelic Society and The British Philatelic Association.
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It is the first of its kind to be offered at the auction on December 7, Sotheby’s said, giving it a price estimate of £4 million - £6 million pounds.
The stamp was a runaway success when it went on sale, allowing people to send a letter weighing up to half an ounce to any destination in the country for a flat rate of one penny. Eventually more than 68 million stamps were sold.
The chosen design used an image of Queen Victoria based on a sketch of her aged 15. The same image remained on stamps for more than 60 years until her death in 1901.
