Handstruck 4s are relatively rare simply because Uniform 1d. stampsįor the interim fourpenny post manuscript markings or handstruck stamps were used to show that payment had been made or was required. Only when left unpaid, would the letter be applied with a handstruck ‘4 – usually in black ink in accordance with convention. If pre-paid, the letter received a manuscript ‘4’ in red ink. During the period from 5 December, a 4d letter up to half an ounce could be either pre-paid by the sender or post-paid by the recipient without penalty. This was so popular that the change to penny postage came shortly thereafter on 10 January 1840. Although the goal was uniform penny postage, the first change was on 5 December 1839 to a uniform fourpenny post. The most important of these was a uniform charge based upon weight. However, before that could be introduced other aspects of his reforms had to be implemented. The main reason Hill is remembered today is his proposal for “stamps” to prepay postage, which resulted in the creation of the Penny Black, the world’s first postage stamp. He argued successfully that if the charge was low enough – like 1d per half-ounce for anywhere in the United Kingdom – the volume of mail would increase enormously and thus cover the cost. The main thrust of Hill’s reforms was to move away from postage charged according to distance carried, to a simple uniform rate of postage based on the weight of a letter. This was a considerable discouragement to people to use the post.Ī number of people advocated postal reform but it was Rowland Hill, born in 1795 in Kidderminster, who brought it to fruition. In addition there were a number of extra charges and the total was normally paid by the recipient. There were a remarkable number of anomalies and evasion was widespread. The Postal History of Great Britain and Ireland.From 1812 the cost of a letter of one sheet from London to Edinburgh was 1s 1d two sheets were double that and four sheets or one ounce cost 4s 4d. British County Catalogues of Postal History. Paid At Stamps Table Glossary Sources used:īCC.57, 59, 60, 61 etc. They have been arranged in alphabetical order of where the postage was paid. The PDF link below lists relevant items in The Postal Museum’s Postal History Collection. The corners of the frames are often found square, chamfered and rounded. The most common variations within a single family are physical size, style of lettering, and where the words “PAID AT” are within a square or rectangular frame. BCC.60) is allocated to handstamps broadly similar but not identical in appearance. The British County Catalogues of Postal History by Willcocks and Jay have been widely used in compiling the listings of handstamps, and these in many instances fall into a number of families where the same type number (e.g. They are usually struck in red ink, synonymous with pre-paid postage, but are also recorded in black, blue and green. The framed types are rectangular, circular, oval, octagonal and in the case of Tavistock, even scroll-shaped. “Paid-at” stamps were used throughout the United Kingdom in a great variety of designs, both framed and unframed. It was not until the 1820s that the first examples of what was to become a widely-used group of stamps were issued known as “Paid-at” handstamps and these can be found in use into the 1850s. The earliest paid handstamp used in an English provincial office on a pre-paid letter was in 1775 when Tetbury in Gloucestershire used a “Pd” mark contained in a circular frame. Accordingly, “pre-paid” or “paid” handstamps were few and far between and did not exist, except for the Chief Offices in London, Edinburgh and Dublin and a few major cities like Birmingham, Bristol and Glasgow.
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