Great Penny Red Find On Ebay

Well great for me, check the plate letters





Can't wait for it to arrive!

That looks Super BC, congrats.

Dorking to...Highgate?

Plate 57 as you can see. Nice margins.
Can we know the essence of the letter when it arrives please?

BeeSee.. I need your mailing address please?

@Rodd: It is definitely not Highgate, here is a better shot of the cancel. Anymore ideas? The seller had good images. Also, there is no letter on back, it is part of an envelope.

@SV: Address sent.

where do you see the plate 57? I thought they were in the sides I don't see it?

Reigate in Surrey

Edwin, The plate numbers were added at the sides in the later penny reds with letters in all four corners.

Edwin I saw Plate 57 written on the cover,
but I also thought the date was 1843 turns out 1845

Well done Nigel, I still have problems seeing Reigate :)


What was happening when your letter as written?

Patents for the rubber band, and bandaid,
and a homing pigeon flys 11,000 Km!

1845 in History

January 29 Edgar Allen Poe's "Raven" 1st published (New York City)
March 3 Congress authorizes ocean mail contracts for foreign mail delivery
March 3 Florida becomes 27th state
March 4 James K. Polk inaugrated at 11th president
March 5 Congress appropriates $30,000 to ship camels to western U.S.
March 17 Bristol man, Henry Jones, patents self-raising flour
March 17 Rubber band patented by Stephen Perry of London
March 26 Joseph Francis, New York City, patents a corrugated sheet-iron lifeboat
March 26 Patent awarded for adhesive medicated plaster, precusor of bandaid
April 2 H L Fizeau and J Leon Foucault take 1st photo of Sun
May 28 Fire in Quebec Canada, 1,500 houses destroyed
June 1 Homing pigeon completes 11,000 km trip (Namibia-London) in 55 days
June 4 Mexican - U.S. war starts
July 14 1st postmasters' provisional stamps issued, New York City
July 14 Fire in New York City destroys 1,000 homes and kills many
July 16 New York Yacht Club holds its 1st regatta
September 23 1st baseball team, New York Knickerbockers organize, adopt rule code
September 24 1st baseball team is organized
December 27 Ether 1st used in childbirth in U.S., Jefferson, Ga
December 29 Texas admitted as 28th state

Thanks for all the information Guys!

Thanks Rod, 1845 was a very interesting year - a bad year for fires, but a good year for mailmen (elastics for bundling and bandaids for dog bites).

I can see Reigate now, and also the plate 57 in pencil, which I had overlooked. But I am interested in knowing how to identify the plate numbers, since they were only engraved on later issues as Nigelc said.

If you want to play with these plates, you're going to need Gibbons GB Specialised Vol 1 - Queen Victoria

The piece arrived today - quite nice I think. Here is a 600dpi scan.

Very nice indeed, and well found. Good four-margined copies are much scarcer than the market knows.

May I add my favourite penny red to your thread? This one also remains firmly attached to an entire. Yours has better margins than mine, which looks like it was separated by tearing rather than cutting!

Quite nice?..beautiful! :)
I wish I good literature on these,
the cat suggests these had "punched" letters, they look engraved to me.
Also philatelists refer to the top fleurons as "stars"
I always thought they were an interpretation of the Tudor Rose.
I'll keep this image as an example of 1 of the 7 types of diadems.
QV also appears to have a dint near the bridge of her nose,
I'll remember to look there when another close up becomes avail.

Jubilee, I would have a closer look,
were there not rare examples of the 1d red
that were rouletted?

Rod, there were rouletted "separation trials" by Archer in 1848. These aren't known on cover, but catalogue at £15,000 mint.

Sadly, my entire is dated 1842.........

Jubilee, yours is nice too because of the Maltese cross.