Great Britain 1840 1d black "VR" Official (Before Hardening) imprimatur, SGV1.
A very fine unused imperforate imprimatur lettered 'TI'.
Rare, one of only 33 possible examples many of which are in institutional collections.
The V.R. Official penny black stamps were intended for the sole use on official correspondence from government departments.
It was prepared for use in April 1840 but was not issued. The upper corners bore the letters "V" and "R" instead of stars. The watermark was Small Crown and it was imperforate. It was registered twice on 15 April and 9 May 1840.
There were 3,323 good sheets submitted, but the idea of using special stamps for government offices was abandoned and all but 21 of the sheets were destroyed on 25 January 1843. Because the Mulready was so disliked by the general public, it ended up being used by the government instead of the VR Official stamp.
13 of those sheets were used for distribution with the Postmasters' Notice (PNS). A few specimens passed through the post. Rowland Hill used examples from a sheet sent to him in April 1840 for experiments with trial obliterators.
Recent research suggests that this plate was put to press unhardened and remained so during its short period of use.
The V.R. Official penny blacks have always been considered extremely important in the world of early British stamp collecting. The imprimatur, being the equivalent to the first edition, is a major trophy asset of British postal history.
Accompanied with a 2006 Brandon Certificate and an independent certificate of authenticity from the highly regarded expertiser Martin Eichele, Basel where it is described as "an excellent stamp".
Stanley Gibbons marked down the value of the V.R. Official penny black imprimaturs in their most recently published GB Specialised Queen Victoria catalogue (published in November 2020) from £35,000 to £20,000. This unprecedented 43% discount to historic values presents an excellent buying opportunity today.
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