£6 million! The world's first stamp, "Black Penny", will be auctioned, featuring the side face of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom when she was young

Source: Global Times

Sotheby's will auction the world's first stamp ,"Blackpence" in December, which will sell for as much as £6 million. According to the British "Guardian" reported on the 26th, the stamp area is 6 square centimeters, which is printed with the side face of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom when she was young.

Black pence was issued in 1840 and is the world's first known stamp. The "Black Penny" auctioned by Sotheby's auction house is the first stamp printed stamp, which has been identified by the official Philatelic Society of the United Kingdom. Sotheby's said the stamp was "undoubtedly the most important one in philatelic history" and represented "the beginning of social communication, allowing people from all walks of life to communicate and promoting the prosperity of commerce".

It is reported that before the release of "black pennies", British communications were complex and expensive, and recipients usually had to pay a large fee. After the British "father of stamps" Sir Roland Hill proposed the postage prepayment law, the "black penny" came into being. The portrait of Queen Victoria printed on the stamp was used for more than 60 years until her own death in 1901. in Roche