The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 45, October 23, 2005, Article 19

MORE STAMPS ON COINS

Yossi Dotan writes: "Last week's E-Sylum had Dick Johnson's
story of a stamp of the coin. Other examples of stamps on
coins are the following:

British Virgin Islands
125th Anniversary of Death of Rowland Hill
KM-284 5 dollars 2004 .990 red titanium
KM-285 75 dollars 2004 .990 red titanium center
in .999 gold ring

The reverse depicts the 1 cent stamp of 1856 of British Guiana
(now Guyana). It was printed in British Guiana in black ink on
magenta (purplish red) paper by order of the postmaster of the
colony, when the stock of regular stamps of the colony was sold
out before arrival of a fresh shipment from the London printers.
(The red color of the titanium coins alludes to the color of the
stamp). The stamp was initialed by a post office employee as
a security measure. The only stamp known of this issue was
discovered in 1873 by Vernon Vaughan, a 12-year-old schoolboy
living in Georgetown, British Guiana. It is the world’s rarest stamp,
and was sold in 1980 for $935,000. The coin honors Rowland
Hill (1795-1879), an English schoolmaster who in 1837 published
a pamphlet "Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability,"
in which he proposed the use of pre-printed envelopes and
adhesive postage stamps to indicate prepayment of postage. Hill’s
plan also called for a uniform low postage rate to anywhere in the
British Isles, instead of a much higher variable rate depending on
distance and the number of sheets of paper that was paid by the
receiver. Hill’s invention, for which he was knighted, made
communication by mail by the masses both affordable and practical,
and resulted in the issue of the first stamp in the world in England
in 1840.

Isle of Man
150th Anniversary of "Penny Black" Stamp
KM-267 1 crown 1990 "pearl black" copper-nickel, issued
also in .925 silver, .917 gold and .950 platinum

The reverse depicts the black one penny stamp issued by
Great Britain in 1840. (The special black finish of the coin
alludes to the color of the stamp). Adhesive stamps became
possible when Sir Rowland Hill devised the system of uniform
penny postage to make it easy for the public to mail letters
when post offices were not open. The system came into
operation Jan. 10, 1840. The first adhesive stamp, the so-called
Penny Black, became valid for English postage May 6, 1840.
The British Treasury held a nationwide competition in 1839 to
obtain suitable stamp designs, but Hill's own suggestion of using
Queen Victoria's profile (based on the classic Wyon medallic
portrait) was finally adopted. It proved so popular it was used
on every British stamp until 1902! The "Pearl Black" technique
was a pioneering metal concept by the Pobjoy Mint. It created
a black coloration in either copper-nickel or silver by introducing
new alloying technology developed over several years by mint
engineers in Sutton, England."

[And here's another one - this weekend's Pennsylvania Association
of Numismatists show featured an elongated cent with the stamp
picturing Benjamin Franklin. -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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