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 Post except for Australia and New Zealand, who would not benefit from it until 1905. In 1908 it was extended to America. The Penny Post rate ended in Great Britain in 1918. In the United States, Spaulding's Penny Post operated in Buffalo, New York from 1847 to 1850. Davis' Penny Post operated in Baltimore, Maryland for several weeks of February 1856, leaving behind a handful of rare stamps. The Penny Post is the journal of the Carriers and Locals Society, and was also the original name of "The Cincinnati Post". Penny Post The Penny Post is any one of several postal