Great Britain 1887 5d dull purple & blue "Jubilee" (Die 1), SG207.
A superb unused, with original gum, very lightly mounted block of four. Wonderful fresh colour and gum.
A very scarce block in such fine quality.
The Jubilee stamps were issued at the end of Queen Victoria’s reign between 1887 and 1900. The fact they became known as the “Jubilee issue” coinciding with the Queen’s Jubilee was fortuitous as the set was planned to be issued from 1884. However, this was delayed until the first issue came out on 1 January 1887, the year of Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee.
The previous stamps in issue were the 1883-4 lilac and green series. These did not appeal to the public due to the colours being so dull. There were several different denominations at the time of the same colour and similar in design. This frustrated post office workers as postmarks regularly covered the denomination making it difficult to establish if the correct denomination stamp had been used.
This led to a decision to replace these issues with new issues of different colour for each denomination. Some were printed in two colours and represented the first ever British bi-coloured stamps.
In terms of the conservative nature of stamp designs at the time, this was a major break from tradition. They quickly became popular with the public being more modern in design and colourful. Today, they continue to capture the hearts of stamps collectors.
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