영국 최초우표 2펜스의 차이점은? two white lines on Two Penny Blue stamp of 1841

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Look for two white lines on Two Penny Blue stamp of 1841

By David Alderfer

One of the most soughtafter stamps of Great Britain is the Penny Black (Scott 1), the first adhesive postage stamp ever created.
The Penny Black’s less
popular companion, the Two Penny Blue (Scott 2), is harder to acquire and likely to cost more than the favored Penny Black.
   Both the 1-penny black stamp and the 2d blue stamp picture Queen Victoria.
   The appeal among collectors of the Tuppenny Blue, as it is affectionately nicknamed, is not nearly as high as that of the Penny Black.
   Yet a four-margin example of the 2d 1840 imperforate stamp adds class to a collection and makes it special.
   A fine used example with four margins and a light strike of a black Maltese cross cancellation is shown on the left in the nearby illustration.
   When Rowland Hill conceived the reforms of the postal system that were instituted in 1840, he included two different gummed stamps in his plan.
   The 1d stamp, printed in black, was to receipt the prepayment of letters sent within the United Kingdom and weighing less than ½ ounce, which accounted for most mail.
   The second adhesive, a 2d stamp, was to be printed in blue and would be used to cover the cost of letters weighing more than ½ ounce.
   The design of the larger denomination is almost identical to the 1d stamp. Both show an engraved profile of Queen Victoria. Decorative stars are included in the top corners.
   For security reasons, different letter combinations were printed in the two bottom corners of each stamp in a pane. "AA" indicated position No. 1, the first stamp in the fi rst row and the top stamp in the first column of the sheet of 240 individual stamps arranged in 20 rows of 12 stamps each.
   The last stamp in the bottommost row bore the letters "TL." This indicated the 240 th stamp in the
sheet, or the 12 th stamp in the 20 th row.
   The two adhesives were differentiated not only by color but also by the words printed across the bottom of the stamp. "Two Pence" appears on the 2d stamp, and "One Penny" is engraved on the 1d stamp. While it is estimated that more than 68 million Penny Blacks were printed, only 6½ million Tuppenny Blues were printed.
Assuming the survival
rates for both stamps are the same, a Penny Black is 10 times more available than a Two Penny Blue.
   The Penny Black remained black for only 10 months. In February 1841, the color was changed from black to red.
   The 2d blue stamp continued to be printed in the same color, blue, until 1880, when a new design was introduced and the color was changed to rose.
   There was a subtle change in design made to the 2d stamp at the same time that the color of the 1d stamp was changed from black to red.
   Look closely at the stamp on the right in the illustration accompanying this column and see if you can see the difference.
   Two horizontal white lines, one above and one below the profi le of Queen Victoria, were added to the design.
   Post offi ce documents of December 1840 state that the white lines were added "as it may be important, hereafter, to have the means of distinguishing the new Twopenny Labels from the old ones."
   The watermark on both versions of the 2d blue stamps is the same. It is the small crown watermark.
   The ability to distinguish the two 2d stamps was never really important for contemporary post office operations, but it has become very important to collectors.
   The 1840 2d stamp without the lines (Scott 2) is much costlier than the 1841 2d stamp with the two white lines added (4).
   The Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue
values a used 1840 2d stamp at $575 and a used 1841 2d stamp at $80.
   Collectors need to be cautious when looking to buy the 1840 stamp, which is usually priced much higher than are examples of the 1841 stamp.
   The unscrupulous have been known to carefully fill in the white lines with blue coloring and offer the altered 1841 stamp at the higher prices usually commanded for genuine 1840 stamps.
   Examples of the 1840 Two Penny Blue on cover are highly prized by collectors because they were much less used by postal patrons than the Penny Black stamps were.

The Two Penny Blue stamp shown on the left was issued in 1840 at the same time as its much more popular companion, the Penny Black. In 1841, the design of the 2d stamp, but not its color, was modified to include two white lines, one above and one below the profile of Queen Victoria, as shown by the 2d stamp on the right.

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