The 1840 1d black, the world's first postage stamp, was printed by Perkins, Bacon & Petch of 69 Fleet Street, London, using the line engraved process. The stamps were printed from 12 different plates. Plate 1 is found in 2 states, 1a and 1b. Stamps from plate 11 are the scarcest. Because the black Maltese cross cancellation counld be fraudulently removed from the face of the stamp it was decided to change the colour of the stamps to red-brown

Originally the 1d red-brown was printed from seven of the 1d black plates. New plates were engraved during the life of the imperforate 1d red-brown. The final general use plate 175 was used from December 1853.

SG.1 1d Intense Black	SG.2 1d Black
SG.3 1d Grey Black	SG.4 2d Deep Full Blue
SG.5 2d Blue	SG.6 2d Pale Blue
Plated examples: (4 Margin)	Plated 1d Blacks
1841 1d Reds from Black Plates 4 margins	1841 1d Red Imperforate Wmk Small Crown (4 margin copies)
Varieties on 1d Reds	Maltese Cross Cancels (off cover)
1841 2d Blue Imperf-Wmk Small Crown White lines added	Plated Examples (off cover)
PERFORATED ISSUES