Two penny blue Two penny blue The Two Penny Blue or The Two Pence Blue was the world's second official postage stamp, produced in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and issued after the Penny Black. Initial printing took place from 1 May 1840, and in all 6,460,000 were printed from two plates until 29 August. Officially the stamps were valid for postage from 6 May but were only available from 8 May. It was first sold to the public at the London Inland revenue office on 6 May 1840. Except for its denomination, the design is exactly the same as
Penny at Soho Mint in Birmingham in 1797. Typically, 1 lb. of copper produced 24 pennies. In 1860, the copper penny was replaced with a bronze one (95% copper, 4% tin, 1% zinc). Each pound of bronze was coined into 48 pennies. The United States' cent—popularly known as the "penny" since the early 19th century—began with the unpopular copper chain cent in 1793. The penny that was brought to the Cape Colony (in what is now South Africa) was a large coin — 36 mm in diameter, 3.3 mm thick and — and the twopence was correspondingly larger at 41 mm