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| ABOVE: Two stamps from the event to celebrate the Ocean Penny Post - Philatelia, Manchester 1899 - in blue with red wording and in purple with green wording |
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| ABOVE: The same design brown stamp with blue, purple and green lettering |
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The move towards a uniform penny postage system meant an 1899 Manchester-based exhibition provided a variety of intriguing publicity stamps. Charles and Francis Kiddle uncover the tale behind them.
On January 10, 1840 Rowland Hill introduced Uniform Penny Postage throughout the United Kingdom, and followed this on May 6, 1840 with the introduction of the first postage stamp, the Penny Black. However, Rowland Hill's concept was for Penny Postage to be available for all countries in the world. In fact, this didn't happen until the 1930s when Australia was the last Commonwealth country to join the penny postage scheme.
One of the major steps towards Universal Penny Postage was the introduction of Ocean Penny Postage (or more correctly Imperial Penny Postage) on December 25, 1898 - this was commemorated by Canada producing the first 'Xrnas' stamp. We illustrate an interesting cover bearing a pair of these stamps, interesting as the cover carries the design of the Mulready. It was posted on December 7 and thus had more than one stamp on it to cover the rate.
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ABOVE: Imperf design in orange with green letters,
but this may well be a plate proof |
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Great Britain celebrated the advent of Ocean Penny Postage by arranging the first International Stamp Exhibition to be held in a non-capital city, Manchester 1899. This was the third international stamp exhibition to be held in Great Britain, the first two, 1890 and 1897, being held in London. In the Prospectus for the Exhibition, the introductory first paragraph makes interesting reading: 'Few pursuits have undergone greater changes or seen more extensive developments in recent times than that of philately, which from being almost entirely monopolised 30 or 40 years ago by schoolboys, now occupies the serious attention of collectors of all ages and all classes, in every part of the civilised world'.
Issued prior to the exhibition were some large-sized vignettes depicting a Viking long boat with the word 'Philatelia' on the billowing sail. We have searched through stamp journals of that period, including printed advertisements, and we can find no mention of these stamps other than a statement made in the London Philatelist (Vol 8, 1899, page 66) that: 'Exhibition stamps have been issued, which was intended to make the exhibition widely known, and to keep the date of the opening fresh in the memory of the public'. |
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