IT cost only tuppence to send to Burnley, but now nearly 170 years later a rare Victorian postal wrapper is set to fetch up to £1,800 at auction.
The wrapper, featuring two Penny Black postage stamps, was posted in Padiham on May 9, 1841, and is simply addressed to Messrs Alcock & Dixon, solicitors, Burnley.
The firm, based in St James's Row, Burnley received the wrapper – a type of envelope – and its contents, which are now missing, the next day.
At first glance it does not look that remarkable. But on closer inspection it is actually a stamp collecting gem.
On September 9 it is expected to sell for between £1500 and £1800 at auctioneers Spink in Bloomsbury, London.
If the wrapper had featured three Penny Blacks, it would now be worth at least £4,000.
The wrapper is particularly valuable mainly because of its two stamps, which were printed from one of the rarest of the twelve Penny Black printing plates, Plate X.
Its value is further boosted by the Burnley postmark, which should have been on the back of the wrapper rather than the front.
The stamps also have ‘large margins’ according to auctioneers Spink, which will appeal to collectors.
The wrapper is likely to have been delivered by a horse-drawn mail van.
There was no need to put a street name on it as Burnley was much smaller at the time and only well-to-do, professional people tended to receive mail.
There was also no postcode as it would be another 130 years before they were introduced in Burnley!
>> STAMP OF APPROVAL
* The Penny Black was the world’s first adhesive postage stamp and was introduced on May 6, 1840.
* It features a picture of the young Queen Victoria, who had been on the throne for three years.
* It was axed a few months later when it was found that the red cancellation ink could easily be washed off and the stamps re-used.
* The total print run for the Penny Black was 286,700 sheets with 68,808,000 stamps.
* Penny Blacks were not perforated, so they had to be cut from a sheet by a postal clerk and some Penny Blacks are more neatly and carefully cut than others affecting their value.
* In February 1841, the Penny Red was introduced as its replacement, although Penny Blacks were still being used after that date as the Burnley wrapper proves.
