Great Britain 1870 ½d rose red Plate 12 imprimatur, SG48.
A very fine unused four margin imperforate imprimatur lettered 'BG'.
Provenance: Ex. The Royal Philatelic Collection of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Accompanied with a 2008 Royal Philatelic Society (RPS) Certificate of Authenticity.
An example from the first approved printing sheet of an iconic stamp, being Britain's smallest ever stamp, with the most prestigious of provenance.
The ½d rose red stamps, first issued on 1 October 1870, were the first halfpenny stamp. It was introduced to cover a reduction in the postal rate for newspapers and postcards.
It was designed to be approximately half the size of the penny stamps and is famous for being the smallest British postage stamp ever issued at 17.5mm x 14mm. The stamps were given the nickname "Bantams" due to their small size.
Because of their size, the sheets were perforated from side to side rather than top to bottom, with the A column normally inserted first. The stamps were watermarked with the word "halfpenny" that extended across three stamps.
The ½d rose red stamps were replaced in 1880 by the surface printed halfpenny green stamps.
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