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To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the
Penny Black, Britain’s
and the world’s first adhesive postage stamp, Royal Mail changed
the color of first class definitive stamps to black for most of
the year 1990. To make the cancel more visible on black stamps,
red ink was used for cancels, mimicking the procedure used
in 1840.
Second class definitives were changed to light blue, similar to
the Twopenny Blue also issued in 1840. This cover shows a red
cancel applied to a 15p stamp that paid the second class rate
at that time. This cover, however, was addressed to the USA and
therefore required more postage. (The remainder of the
address has been removed from the illustration.) The surface mail rate for
overseas letters at that time was 24p, so the letter was 9p
short. The 9p is noted at the top of the circular handstamp after the
letter “T,” the standard marking for postage due mail.
At the bottom of the handstamp is “25p.” Wawrukiewicz’s
book of British postal rates notes that 25p was the underpayment
surcharge added to “all unpaid or underpaid letters received from
abroad.” (emphasis added). Apparently, the same surcharge
was added to mail going abroad.
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