The world's first-ever postal order which was bought for just one shilling 129 years ago has been sold at auction.
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The world's first ever postal order which was bought for just one shilling 129 years ago is going on sale Photo: SWNSThe perfectly-preserved payment, which has the serial number 000001, was the first of millions produced by the Post Office in Lombard Street, London, in 1881.
It sold for £4,485, smashing the guide price of £2,500.
Auctioneer Richard Beale, of Warwick and Warwick Auctioneers, said: “This was a very unique item and as such went for a lot more than predicted. There were lots of bids from enthusiasts. It’s been in the same family for over 130 years so the opportunity to own something as rare as this doesn’t come up very often. Collectors were always going to have to dig into their pockets to own this and clearly they did.”
Only five other 1881 postal orders bearing the same 000001 number are known to have survived but this is the first one ever produced by the main Lombard Street post office.
Postal orders were invented by the Victorians as a safe and secure method of sending money through the post.
Even the first ones contained the watermark 'POSTAL ORDER / ONE SHILLING' as a counter forgery device.
The first one was bought by Arthur Bull on January 1, 1881, after he queued for three hours outside the Lombard Street post office.
It was signed by the clerk A.G. Emery but Arthur never cashed it, predicting that it would one day be a collector's item.
He kept it in a leather case and locked it in his family's safe before passing it down to his son, also named Arthur Bull.
When Arthur Bull junior died in 1953 the postal order passed to his son Brian Galpin, who kept it safe in his home in Surrey.
After he passed away in 2005 aged 72 the postal order passed to his widow Audrey, 75, who has agreed to auction it.
The Postal Order is a direct descendent of the money order which had been established by a private company in 1792.
During World War One and World War Two, British Postal Orders were temporarily declared legal tender to save paper and labour.
Postal Orders can be bought and redeemed at post offices in the UK, although a crossed Postal Order must be paid into a bank account.
