Penny Red

The Penny Red was issued in 1841 and continued as the main stamp for postage in the UK until 1879. Initially some of the same plates that were used to print the Penny Black were used to print the Penny Red. About 21 billion Penny Reds were printed by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. Initially the stamp had no perforations, and had to be cut from the sheet using scissors; perforations were officially introduced in 1854.

The stamps were printed in sheets of 240 (20 rows of 12 stamps), so one row cost 1 shilling and a complete sheet one pound. Each stamp has unique corner letters AA, AB, AC ... AL etc, so its position on the plate can be identified. In 1869 each stamp also had the plate number engraved on it. Because of wear, over 400 different plates were used to print the Penny Red. Two different watermarks were used for the paper, small crown and large crown, introduced in 1855.