The world's first postage stamp is issued - May 1st, 1840

On this day in 1840, the introduction of the Penny Black postage stamp revolutionized the British postal system. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a
show for those interested in the big and small moments
of history. I'm Gay Bluesier and in this episode we're
talking about a world changing invention called the penny Black,

(00:22):
a sticky slip of paper that helped define the postal
system as we know it. The day was May one,
eighteen forty. The introduction of the penny black postage stamp
revolutionized the British postal system. Featuring a white profile portrait

(00:46):
of Queen Victoria set against a black patterned background, the
adhesive stamp introduced a new, flat rate form of postage.
It allowed British citizens to send a letter weighing up
to half an ounce anywhere in the country for the
cost of just one penny. This innovation made it easier

(01:06):
than ever for people to correspond, exchange ideas, and share
news with one another. It was widely embraced by the
British public, and in the first year of its availability,
roughly eighty million penny blacks were sold. Prior to the
creation of the prepaid postage stamp, the cost of sending
a letter in England varied widely. Each letter was weighed

(01:31):
individually and priced according to its weight in the distance
it had to travel. This meant that a single letter
could sometimes cost more than a day's wages, and in
those days, it was the recipient, not the sender, who
had to pay the postage. This arrangement trained working class
families to dread getting mail, as it always arrived with

(01:53):
an unexpected and often excessive bill. The recipient's only options
were to pay up or refuse delivery. Many people chose
the latter, and in those cases the whole thing was
a wasted effort, both for the sender and for the postman.
This fatal flaw in the Royal Mail's design led to

(02:15):
heavy annual losses for the British government, but it wasn't
until the eighteen thirties, roughly two hundred years after the
service was established, that a progressive reformer named Roland Hill
worked out a solution. In his roles as an educator
and school administrator, Hill observed a drastic rise in literacy

(02:35):
during the Industrial Revolution. He theorized quite correctly that this
would lead to more people writing letters in the coming years,
but in order to facilitate that increase, in mail volume.
He knew that the problem of postage rates would have
to be corrected. Hill's solution was to make the sender
responsible for the delivery fee, so that people would stop

(02:58):
refusing mail and the post office would stop losing money,
and to avoid discouraging people from sending letters. He also
proposed that a uniform national rate be established, one that
everyone could afford, a single penny for any letter weighing
a half ounce or less. Hill sent an essay outlining

(03:19):
his ideas to the General post Office, but they never
got back to him, so in eighteen thirty seven he
self published his essay as a pamphlet titled post Office
Reform Its Importance and Practicability. Hill's proposals gained traction with
the public, and soon after he was invited to meet
with the Postmaster General to discuss how they might be implemented.

(03:44):
By the end of that meeting, the two men had
settled on the defining feature of the revamped postage system,
a small adhesive label that could be applied to envelopes
to indicate payment. Rowland Hill described this new invention as
quote a bit of paper just large enough to bear
the stamp and covered at the back with a glutenous wash,

(04:06):
so that the bringer might attach it to the latter.
As for where a licked stamp should go, they decided
to position it on the upper right corner of the envelope.
Why because the vast majority of people are right handed,
including postal workers, and it was thought this would expediate
the process of postmarking and canceling stamps. Hill's idea for

(04:30):
a postage stamp earned the support of the Postmaster General,
but not everyone in the government believed the system was feasible.
It took another two years of advocating to convince Parliament
to give it a chance, but in eighteen thirty nine
Hill finally got the go ahead. He held a contest
that year to determine the stamp's design, and after reviewing

(04:52):
twenty six hundred entries, he selected a profile of the
newly crowned Queen Victoria. The original inn image was the
work of famed artist and engraver William Wyan, who had
produced several coin and metal portraits of Victoria during her
time as a young princess. The diademed portrait used on

(05:13):
the Penny Black belonged to that series, and it first
appeared on a medal commemorating the Queen's first visit to
London in eighteen thirty seven, the same year she assumed
the throne. Hill worked with artist Henry Corbold to refine
the portrait and develop the stamp's elegant background pattern. Then
engravers George Roshall and Charles and Frederick Heath prepared the

(05:37):
final design for printing. The first Penny Black stamps, named
for their color and cost, were issued for sale on
May first, eighteen forty, even though they weren't valid to
use until May the sixth. The unperforated adhesive stamps were
printed in sheets of two hundred and forty and had

(05:58):
to be individually cut by hand. Nonetheless, the Penny Black
proved wildly popular. In fact, the male volume in Britain
more than doubled in the first year of issue, from
eighty two million pieces of mail in eighteen thirty nine
to one hundred and sixty nine million pieces in eighteen forty.

(06:19):
The stamp's design was modified slightly over time, and the
first change was to its color. The Post Office quickly
realized that the ink of a cancelation mark was hard
to see on a black stamp, so in eighteen forty one,
the penny black became the penny red. One thing that
remained consistent, though, was the Queen's portrait. The same youthful

(06:42):
image of her as a teenage princess continued to adorn
the stamps for the remaining sixty one years of her reign.
England's introduction of affordable uniform postage established a model for
other countries to follow, and over the next few decades,
a postal revolution took place all across the globe, and

(07:03):
while everyone else has benefited from Great Britain's bright idea,
there is still at least one advantage to having been
the first. The Universal Postal Union now requires all nations
to include their country's name on any postage stamps they issue,
except for the United Kingdom. That omission is a respectful

(07:25):
nod to the fact that, unless otherwise noted, all stamps
are British by birth. I'm Gabe Bluesier and hopefully you
now know a little more about history today than you
did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up with the show,
you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at

(07:46):
TDI HC Show, and if you have any comments or suggestions,
feel free to send them my way by writing to
this day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Kasby Bias
for producing the show. Thanks to you for listening. I'll
see you back here again tomorrow for another day in
History class