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
Laurie Penny vile sexist and anti-Semitic abuse" following the book's publication. Penny was selected by Truthdig as "Truthdigger of the Week" for the week of 25 November 2011. In 2012, "Tatler" magazine described her as one of top 100 'people who matter'. In October 2012, "The Daily Telegraph" ranked Penny as the 55th most influential left-winger in Britain, reporting that she is "without doubt the loudest and most controversial female voice on the radical left." In April 2014, Penny was announced as an International Nieman Fellow at Harvard. In August 2015, Penny endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election.