Penny Reds

Hi all
I saw a topic yesterday about these stamps. I know very little about them, except the album I found them in had 1847 date alongside. I put em aside thinking 1 day they may be of interest to someone.
Regards Jezza

At least three have had the perforations trimmed off (Top left, bottom left, and bottom right stamps).
The others, save the top right one, are in really crappy condition. Top right stamp is the best of the bunch, but probably only worth a few dollars.

You can note some different cancellations on them - the numbers in oval bars (top left and bottom left) are of the England/Wales type with 357 being from Hereford. The numbers in diamonds (11 and 3) are London Inland cancellations, and the number in a circle (52) is of the London District type, with numbers over 50 being from the London Chief Office. The number in the diamond bars (lower right) is Irish, with 172 being from Derry.

The imperforate Penny Red is one of my favourite stamps. You have several there, Jezza and, although it looks like they are in very poor condition, they can be used for "practice" should you ever want to continue with them... they are for the most part usually very cheaply available due in some part to the complications of identifying them. BUT, as I said, the ones you have can be used as practice to see the watermarks for instance.
The imperforate Penny Red come in some easily determined varieties without going into more advanced plating. Some will be, if you are lucky, from the same plates first used to print the Penny Blacks and these can be easily identified with online resources... they are variety S.G.7.
Some will have Maltese Cross cancels...they are S.G.8L
Some will have 1844 type cancels (usually numbers and bars) and they are S.G.8P.
A few might have numbers in the Maltese Cross... S.G.8M
If the paper is blue-ish you may see the queen's head like a cameo on the back... they are Ivory Head or S.G.8H

The stamp below has many faults, I understand that.
I am a novice collector (started in April this year), so, I just want to share my excitement - it is a first time that I see such a blue-ish/blued paper. It is literally blue!
Perf. 16
Is this stamp SG29 C8 blued paper?
Please kindly help.
Thank you in advance for all your comments and suggestions.

It might be difficult to identify your Penny Star due to its condition. These stamps are categorized mostly by...
a) watermark ...either small or large crown
b) Perforation ... either 14 or 16
c) Alphabet type and most important is the positioning of the check letters in the corners.
d) Paper color ... either blued or not blued.

Your stamp has almost no identifiable check letters so that makes it very difficult and you don't say what watermark is there. However, you say the stamp is perforated 16. That would rule out SG29 as my SG Specialised says SG29 (C8) is perf 14.

Well, I'll hazard a guess - if the perfs are 16, the paper is blued, and, if the queen is not the re-engraved type.. (Although admittedly the scan is less than optimal)

Therefore, possibly 1854-55 Scott 8 1p red brown perforated 16 (SG 17).
The non re-engraved stamps only come in the small crown watermark.

If, in fact, it is a re-engraved stamp, then either 1855 Scott 9 1p red brown (SG 21), bluish paper, and perf 16, small crown watermark OR 1855 Scott 14 (SG 26) 1p red brown, 16 perf, bluish paper, but Large Crown watermark.

By the way, the paper "bluing" was caused by prussiate of potash in the ink or in the paper that would tend to color the paper.

For a tutorial oriented to the generalist or WW collector on the penny reds, please see my blog post..

http://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.co...40-1900.html

Thank you very much!!
I need to soak this stamp - the back still has some pieces of paper on it (exactly in the middle).
I will post a new scan as soon as the stamp will dry.
Thank you for helping and teaching me!!
))

Sorry for the delay. I didn't post earlier just because it looks like it is hopeless to identify this stamp...
I will be very thankful for any comments.