World’s 1st postage stamp ready for auction, expected to fetch ₹62 crore

Oct 26: World’s first postage stamp, the Penny Black, is being offered at auction with a price estimate upto $8.25 million (almost ₹62 crore). It was less than one square inch and cost just a penny but it launched a revolution in communications. The adhesive stamp, which features a profile of Queen Victoria, is attached to a document dated April 10, 1840, from the archive of British postal service reformer Robert Wallace, a Scottish politician.

The Penny Black, which introduced a flat rate, was used from May 6, 1840. Before that, the recipient paid the postage cost. “This is the first ever stamp, the precursor to all stamps, and unequivocally the most important piece of philatelic history to exist,” Henry House, head of Sotheby’s Treasures Sale, said in a statement.