DescriptionThe Post Office of Fifty Years Ago p19.png
English: FACSIMILE OF THE ORIGINAL SKETCH FOR THE POSTAGE STAMP
Postage stamps were first used in the United Kingdom on 6th May, 1840. They were manufactured by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon, and Petch, of 69, Fleet Street, who for forty years retained the contract for supplying the penny and twopenny labels—these constituting more than nine-tenths of all the postage stamps employed. The number of stamps produced by them in the forty years amounted to the enormous total of nearly twenty-three thousand millions, sufficient, if placed in line, to encircle the world fifteen times over. In 1855, Messrs. Delarue & Co., of 110, Bunhill Row, also commenced the manufacture of postage stamps, having obtained the contract for the fourpenny labels. Gradually the whole work of making postage stamps for this country and most of its colonies has been entrusted to the latter firm.
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