Penny Lilac of the Penny Lilac was adapted from that used for revenue stamps in Britain from the early 1860s. In that respect it represented a break with 40 years of tradition in postage stamp design. Its predecessors (the Penny Black, the Penny Red and the Penny Venetian Red) all had rectangular designs. The use of the colour lilac for low value definitives was extended in 1884 when other low-value stamps were issued in lilac, with green then being used for higher-value stamps. The Penny Lilac was a surface-printed stamp and was issued in two forms: Penny Lilac stamps are often found
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 in the same manner as for the Penny Black and the early printings of the Two pence blue. Perforations, (experimental gauge 16), first came into use in 1850 and were officially adopted in 1854 (in the same size as the experimental issue). The experimental issue can be distinguished from the general issue as the later was applied to stamp which used a different alphabet type for the letters in the lower