The first British stamps of the 1900s

Surface printed on Imperial Crown watermarked paper — **Imperial Crown watermarked paper**

There’s an interesting theme over at Sunday Stamps today at See it on a Postcard: “Issued in the 1900s”. Our website was created initially to celebrate Victorian line-engraved stamps from the 1800s, but Queen Victoria had a very long reign and the very last stamps to be issued while she was on the throne actually appeared in 1900. So what better stamps to illustrate this theme!

The ‘Jubilee Issue’ British stamps first appeared in 1887, but it was only pure coincidence that this was also the year of the Golden Jubilee of the accession of Queen Victoria to the throne in 1837, as they had been planned for several years before their eventual issue. Surface printed on Imperial Crown watermarked paper, rather than line engraved, they included a first for British stamps with some of the values being printed in two colours.

1st January 1887: ^½d, 1^½d, 2d, 2^½d, 3d, 4d, 5d, 6d, 9d and 1 shilling

24 February 1890: 10d

15 September 1892: 4^½d

Which takes us up to the 20th century and the first changes to the stamps:

17 April 1900: the halfpenny value was reprinted, changing its orange-vermillion colour to blue-green
11 July 1900: the one-shilling value went from a single colour dull green to a two-colour scheme of carmine rose and green.

One shilling green & carmine (1900) — Halfpenny blue-green (1900)

In the immediate aftermath of Queen Victoria’s death in 1901 this classic design was reused in 1902 for the first stamps issued for her son and heir to the throne King Edward VII.

Don’t forget to head over to Sunday Stamps to see more postage stamps issued in the 1900s.

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The way we were … European flags in 1979

EU Assembly 1979 – 41mm x 30mm Inaugurated in 1958 as the Common Assembly, the European Parliament originally consisted of representatives selected by the national parliaments of EU member countries. Beginning in 1979, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected by direct universal suffrage to terms of five years. Britannica.com When I saw that today’s theme over at Sunday Stamps, hosted by See it on a Postcard, was Maps/Flags my mind went right away to this set of GB commemorative stamps from 1979. Recent turbulent events in the UK over Brexit make this particular issue a poignant piece of political history. This isn’t intended as a political post, however, although as a British citizen who has lived almost her entire adult life in Italy, I have always considered myself thoroughly ‘European’! Issued on 9 May 1979 to mark the very first Direct Elections to European Assembly, this set consisted of four very similar stamps featuring subtle variations of the main design of hands – all conspicuously white – placing flags of member nations into ballot boxes. This is the 9 pence stamp, with a blue background, with the other denominations seeing different directions and colour changes of the background. I don’t own this entire set, and only have this used stamp, which I carefully steamed off an envelope as a child. The post mark seems particularly quaint, with its ‘REMEMBER to use the POSTCODE’ slogan. The flags featured include the original six member nations – Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy, and the Netherlands – as well as the three nations that joined later in 1973 – Denmark, Ireland, and the UK – with the UK Union Flag the very first in the top left hand corner. The four stamps were designed by Stafford Cliff, best known as the creative director of the Conran Design Group in London. Don’t forget to head on over to See it on a Postcard and visit the other Sunday Stamps bloggers today!

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2 replies on “The first British stamps of the 1900s”

I especially like the zigzag design of the halfpenny.

These are fascinating stamps. The oldest British stamp in my eclectic collection is one of these. Not in the best of conditions, but I like it anyway.

Sorry about the issue with the blog. I hope it will be solved soon.

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