Stamp Story No. 39 100 YEARS MYSTERY

Press, Volume C, Issue 29638, 7 October 1961, Page 8

Stamp Story No. 39 100 YEARS MYSTERY

[Bp

KEN ANTHONY]

Why Did The Fourpenny One Turn Black?

OERHAPS the most famous stamp design in the world, next to the Penny Black, is this triangular one from the Cape of Good Hope, first issued in 1853. Although the fourpenny “Cape Trianbular” is normally found in a blue, a very few have been discovered in black. But exactly hqw they came to be printed in the wrong colour is still a mystery. At one time it was suggested that the black stamps were a mourning issue prepared on the death of the Prince Consort in December, 1861. But this story does not stand up to investigation. For one thing, the printing plate of the 4d stamp was in London. A special printing in a new colour would have taken several months to prepare and send out to the Cape, yet the first reference to a 4d black occured early in 1862. What’s more, there is no trace of such a printing in the records of the printers or the Cape government. Another theory is that the black stamps are just printers’ proofs, issued by mistake. Against this ia the fact that they are on paper with

s the correct anchor waterI, mark—and the printers 8 never e their practice to pull proofs - on watermarked paper. But the most likely exr planation teems to be that s the printers did, in fact, proa duce in error some proofs in - black on watermarked paper, r and that the stamps were 1 included in a dispatch of cor- » rectly coloured ones. When the news of Prince ■ Albert's death reached the s Cape, it would then have been - possible for an official in f South Africa to distribute a few copies as mementoes—t and give birth to a logend. Only eight of the black I stamps are believed to exist i and all seem to have come 1 from South Africa. ! can the printers have - Imagined that a century later b one of their errors would sell e for £1550 at a London auCf tion! That was what a Continental buyer paid in June. 3 1961. 1 Another example of the r fourpenny black is in the Royal collection of Queen s Elizabeth. Yet another can be ’ seen , a * *he British Museum • in London.—(Central Press t Features , Ltd. All Rights i Reserved).