A Penny Black Stamp From 1840 Is Expected To Fetch £6m At Auction

One of the world’s first postage stamps is expected to fetch £6 million when it goes under the hammer at Sotheby’s in December.

The Penny Black stamp, which dates from April 1840, is considered “the earliest securely dated example of the first postage stamp”.

It will go to auction on December 7th and is set to become the most expensive Penny Black ever sold.

READ MORE: Royal Mail has 20,000 Christmas jobs available

While the Penny Black didn’t officially go on sale until May of that year, some stamps were sold unofficially before then.

One of only three stamps to survive from the first sheet of printed Penny Black stamps, this stamp is attached to a document from the archive of postal service reformer Robert Wallace.

How much are Penny Black stamps worth?

Penny Black stamps are sought after because of their status as the world’s first postage stamp, but their value can vary widely depending on their condition.

Nearly 69 million Penny Black stamps – famously featuring a sketch of Queen Victoria – were printed between May 1840 and February 1841. Many have been preserved by stamp collectors around the world.

A Penny Black stamp in poor to reasonable condition is likely to set you back somewhere in the region of £15 to £30, according to auctioneers Warwick & Warwick.

For a Penny Black stamp in mint condition, you’re likely to be paying anywhere above £1,250 – but you could be looking at five or six figures, or even more.

The Penny Black that’s due to go to auction at Sotheby’s is especially valuable because of its excellent condition and the fact that it’s one of just three surviving from plate 1a, the first printed sheet of Penny Blacks.

Previously, a Penny Black from plate 1d fetched £348,000 at auction in June 2011.

Which stamps are worth the most money?

The most valuable stamp in the world is the British Guiana 1c magenta, dating from 1856, only one of which is known to exist.

In 2014, the stamp was sold at auction to shoe designer Stuart Weitzman for $9.48 million (£6.87 million). It was auctioned again in June, this time selling for $8.3 million.

The 1868 Benjamin Franklin Z Grill is the rarest of all US postage stamps. It’s listed in the Scott catalogue of postage stamps at a value of $3 million.

Other highly valuable stamps include the 1855 Treskilling Yellow and the 1859 Sicilian Error of Colour stamps, both auctioned at $2.6 million.

Stay abreast of the latest on days out, nights out, shopping and more with our Daily What’s On Email updates