Penny Black, Penny Red, Red Two Pence

I just had a "Holy Mother of Pearl" moment. I found this lodged in the back of a binder with about 200 random stamps from every country I could think of. Looking at the first page I was big cheese smiling...











Then I turned the page and almost fell out of my chair!




I usually hate Wednesdays but I am feeling pretty good today!

Excellent! Is that first 1d black a 4- margin copy? And the start of a 1d red plate collection!

There were a couple of 1d blacks in the last job lot I bought. Unfortunately, they both lacked corners, let alone margins.

Nice cancels on the "blacks"

Nice find on those No.1s especially the red and black Maltese cross cancels.
Have a look on the back of the penny red marked 8.
It looks like it could be an ivory head as the paper is 'bluing' although these are usually imperf.

"I turned the page and almost fell out of my chair!"

Take the rough value of your second page of stamps (which appear to be Scott#33 or S.G.43) then multiply that amount by a factor of ten or twelve and you may be able to buy ONE of the Penny black stamps from your first page. Depending on the plate number and general condition (which appears to be pretty good with at least one of them having 4 margins) you have a nice amount to buy a few chairs at the very least.

That 4 margin 1d black would sure sell well in my ebay store

The stamps have been given Scott catalog numbers.
Scott#1 is S.G.2 (1st Penny Black looks like plate 1b)
Scott#8 is S.G.17
Scott#22 is S.G.62a (assuming the paper is slightly blued)

Stanley Gibbons book, "Great Britain Volume One, Queen Victoria" which is a specialised catalogue, gives really excellent information on all the plate numbers and varieties of all the Early Penny Blacks, blues, browns, red-browns etc.

Horamakhet

Yes there is 4 margins on the "black" =) Also AnthonyUK, I turned it over and it was all blue except for where the head is on the other side which is an ivory color on the back. Sorry for the late reply. We had snowpocolypse come through where I am located....and it looks like another one tomorrow =( Heck of time to drive a Kia.