In a corner
In the first of a new series of columns, David Leathart guides us through some of the unique and unusual stamps produced during those pioneering days of the Victorian era, starting with plate numbers
Even before the postage stamp was introduced, the authorities were concerned about them being reused and at the outset put two letters at the bottom of the stamps. This produced, on a sheet of 240 stamps, letters from AA to TL. The first letter indicated the row it was on and the second letter its position in that row.
However, in April 1864 to try to stop partially unobliterated stamps from being put together to form new, fake versions, a letter was introduced to each of the four corners, so there would be an ‘AD’ at the top, for example, and ‘DA’ below.
A Circular to all Postmasters dated 29 July 1858 from Rowland Hill stated: ‘In order to prevent frauds, which have sometimes been attempted upon the Revenue, by the use of Postage Stamps, formed by joining together clean portions cut from labels, which have previously passed through the post, the letters which now appear at lower corners of the Postage Labels, will in future be repeated at the uppermost corners; transposed, however, so as to afford greater security.’
The beginning of the end of corner letters came with the production of the 1880 1d Venetian Red by De La Rue, who failed to ‘produce plates by matrices’ for the stamp, perhaps in a bid to faze the letters out. The need for the letters was formally waived in with the 1½d of May 1880. The cost of entering the letters on the printing plates and the short life of the plates outweighed the advantages.
There was an exception to the regulations regarding letters; the £5 orange telegraph stamp was printed on sheets of 56 and so were lettered AA to DN. For these unique stamps, the first letter indicated the column rather than the row in the sheet, matching the system on other telegraph stamps. Thus the top row is lettered AA, BA, CA and DA, whereas with the 1d black and all other postage stamps the top row is AA, AB, AC and AD.