The story of how the Penny Black changed colour and why it had to change colour. As early as January 1840 the Treasury were advised that the red handstruck paid markings could be removed from covers by the application of creosote oil. ‘Experiments’ were urgently needed to get over this fundamental problem, and so it was agreed between Rowland Hill and Joshua Bacon that a trial printing plate would be manufactured. The trial stamps had no letters in the bottom corners and were disfigured in such a way that they could not be postally used.
From the inception of the ‘Rainbow Trials’ in May 1840 to the letter of December 24th from the Stamps & Taxes Office instructing Perkins, Bacon to print the stamps in the new colours, the author looks in detail at the trials and tribulations entailed in these experiments and the people involved with them.
Profusely illustrated with 180 superb, full colour illustrations including 77 items from the Royal Collection, many of which have not been published before.