Great Britain - Stamp Auctions

In 1661 British Royal Mail, created the world's first stamped-mail service by adopting the “Bishop marks" so that no letter Carrier may delay a letter from post to post. In 1680 William Dockwra opened an independent postal service for local delivery in London using “Penny Post Paid” for payment marking. Within two years British post shut down Dockwra’s service, but continued operating a local “Penny Post” using a remarkably similar triangular stamp. Letters marked with Dockwra’s original stamps are extremely rare and bring high prices in stamp auctions.

The next big innovation in postal services was when Rowland Hill proposal for prepaid letters and suggested that postage be uniformly charged by weight, rather than destination. To ensure payment he proposed the use of adhesive stamps and in May 1840, Britain’s first adhesive stamps were on sale to the public. These first two stamps, known as the Penny Black and Two Pence Blue, featured the portrait of Queen Victoria, “Postage” along the top and the price along the bottom, the name "Great Britain" were not included and this tradition continues as of today. The stamps were cancelled by canceller shaped like a Maltese cross and required colored ink.For the British Empire Exhibition in 1924 held in London the first commemorative sets were issued showing the bust of King George V and a symbolic roaring lion. Only in 1953 after the crowing of QE II set was issued GB adopted the trend of issuing set of stamps commemorating national event.

Collecting GB stamps is very popular as being the innovators of postage stamps and therefor our great hobby of stamp collecting. King George IV was a great collector and his collections are kept by British Crown.