FREE: Penny Black- Uniform Postage

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Penny Black – 1840 Uniform Postage

76p
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The Penny Black was the world’s first adhesive postage stamp. It was introduced in Britain in 1840 as a part of a wide-ranging postal reform, and it marked a turning point in British social history. In his 1838 proposal to Parliament, Rowland Hill, the Victorian social reformer, suggested that: "the postage on all letters received in a post-town, and delivered in the same, or any other post-town in the British Isles, shall be at the uniform rate of one penny per half ounce.” The concept of a uniform postal rate revolutionised the way people sent mail; where a set fee guaranteed carriage and delivery to anywhere in the country, replacing a complex system of prices and distances.