Penny Black printing plates Penny Black printing plates The printing plates for the Penny Black, two pence blue and the VR official were all constructed by Perkins Bacon, the printers of the first postage stamps issued in Great Britain. The construction of these plates was long and complicated, which was intentional so as to make the forgery of the finished article almost impossible. The first stage involved the engraving of a background for the design. This was produced with a rose engine which laid down a circular pattern of symmetrical design onto a piece of soft steel. This was then partly cleared to leave
Penny debate in the United States Penny debate in the United States A debate exists within the United States government, and American society at large, over whether the one-cent coin, commonly called the penny, should be eliminated as a unit of currency in the United States. Several bills introduced in the U.S. Congress would have ceased production of pennies, but none has been approved. Such bills would leave the nickel, at five cents, as the lowest-value coin in the United States. In 1990, United States Representative Jim Kolbe [R-AZ] introduced the Price Rounding Act of 1989, H.R. 3761 to eliminate the penny in cash transactions, rounding