Penny Black Black design features in the innovations section of the new British passport in 2015. Also in 2015, the search engine Google marked the 175th anniversary of the postage stamp with a Google doodle of the Penny Black. Penny Black The Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system. It was first issued in Great Britain on 1 May 1840, but was not valid for use until 6 May. It features a profile of Queen Victoria. In 1837, British postal rates were high, complex and anomalous. To simplify matters, Sir Rowland Hill proposed an
Penny dreadful such titles as "Boys' Leisure Hour, Boys' Standard, Young Men of Great Britain", etc. As the price and quality of other types of fiction works were the same, these also fell under the general definition of penny dreadfuls. Appearing in the 1860s, American dime novels were edited and rewritten for a British audience. These appeared in booklet form, such as the "Boy's First Rate Pocket Library". Frank Reade, Buffalo Bill, and Deadwood Dick were all popular with the penny dreadful audience. The penny dreadfuls were influential since they were, in the words of one commentator, "the most alluring and low-priced