Black and blue puts hospice in the pink
Reporter: Marina Berry
Date published: 29 September 2010
Photo: Picture by VINCENT BROWN
HOSPICE IN THE MONEY . . . Barry Ulyatt with the two rare stamps.
A penny black and its sister stamp, a twopenny blue, are up for grabs from Dr Kershaw’s Hospice.
The collectors items, widely accepted as among the world’s most famous stamps, were discovered in a stack of stamp albums which were donated to the hospice.
The 1840 penny black and the 1841 two-penny blue could bring in hundreds of pounds for the hospice, and are set to go on sale on eBay later this week.
They come with a certificate of authenticity from the stamp collection organisation, The Westminster Collection, and are in a special presentation folder.
Barry Ulyatt, volunteer co-ordinator at the hospice, said: “We have no real idea of value as this can be dictated by so many factors, such as the presence and size of borders on each edge — stamps were not perforated and had to be cut by hand.
“The value is also affected by the position on the sheet and which plate they were printed from. The position on the sheet is denoted by the two letters in the bottom two boxes — the penny black is AJ and the blue is HM.”
Barry added: “Such stamps can fetch as little as £50 or as much as £600.
“As we are not experts we cannot tell, but we doubt they will fetch thousands.
“The stamps are not as rare as people may think, but any serious collector of stamps should have one in their collection, after all the penny black was the first ever postage stamp.”
Adhesive postage stamps were first used in Britain on May 6, 1840, and bore an engraved portrait of the young Queen Victoria.
The penny black was used for letters weighing no more than half an ounce, while the two-penny blue was used for letters of a heavier weight.
Barry is currently working his way through the stack of stamp albums and has already found dozens of series of special issues which will also go for sale on eBay shortly.
Anyone who wants to bid for the stamps should log on to eBay at http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/drkershawshospice
