The Penny Black stamp: a story of perfect timing

With five boxes of stamps to sort through, it seemed like an impossible task.

In a twist of fate one week later, Soham Joshi, a History and Politics student at Aberdeen University with a passion for stamp collecting walked in, looking for a volunteer role.

Thousands of stamps later, he made an unexpected discovery.

A Penny Black, hidden among the donation.

Sparked interest

Since the age of eight, Soham has been collecting stamps and attending philatelic sales (the buying and trading of postage stamps and postal history as collectibles) with his family, sparked by his interest in history.

“Stamps capture a moment in time, whether it be a monarch, changing landscape or culture which you can learn so much about” he told me.

The discovery

Sorting through the boxes of stamps was a tedious process that required a lot of patience from all the team.

“I was quite overwhelmed when I first saw the scale of how many stamps were donated. It’s not often you get to see a lifetime’s collection right in front of you,” said Soham.

It took about two months of sorting through the masses of stamps before the Penny Black was uncovered, with special care having had to be taken to avoid any damage.

“Even a touch from a gloved finger can devalue a stamp in an instant” said Meg, the Shop Manager

The history

The Penny Black was the world’s first official adhesive postage stamp, introduced in the United Kingdom in 1840 and was only in circulation for one year.

Before its introduction, postal costs were typically paid by the receiver, not the sender. They were calculated by distance and number of pages in the letter.

The Penny Black revolutionised the postal service, introducing a flat rate for all letters up to half an ounce, paid by the sender.

The value of a Penny Black can range from £20 to £1000s depending on its condition, the appearance of its margins and the plate used to print the stamp.

In 2021, the expected worth of a pristine Penny Black from the first printed sheet was £6m.

A needle in a haystack

Due to its unusual black colour, the Penny Black stamp was instantly recognisable to Soham.

“He was working one Saturday and sent an excited message. I can only imagine the vibe in the shop” recalled Meg.

The shop brought in an expert, who estimated the stamp to be worth to be £50 due to some slight damage, which is common with age.

The large number of Penny Black stamps produced in its year of circulation make the earliest produced the most sought after and valuable.

History in our hands

I asked Meg what the most interesting part of sorting through the thousands of stamps was.

“Seeing snippets of living history in front of us, holding postcards from Germany during the Second World War and seeing invites to parties from The Royal Family”, she explained.

If Soham hadn’t turned up to volunteer when he did, the stamp would likely have slipped through unnoticed altogether.

“Having someone invested in them from the sorting stage to the discovery of the valuable ones, to actually selling them and making money for Oxfam is priceless”, said Meg.

Next steps

Capturing the interest of collectors across the country, the Penny Black Stamp has since sold to an online buyer for £50.

The team are now working hard to sort through the mountains of stamps still to go, with the help of a local philatelist group.

Some of the most notable are from nations that no longer exist, like the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.

“It's quite amazing actually, how much about the world and its past you learn, with the magic of holding a memento from that place and time that almost acts as a guide”, recalled Soham.

Who knows what other hidden gems are still waiting to be found.