The

postage and revenue stamp A postage and revenue stamp, sometimes also called a dual-purpose stamp, is a stamp which is equally valid for use as a postage stamp and as a revenue stamp. They often but not always bear an inscription such as "Postage and Revenue". Dual-purpose ...

s of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

issued in 1887 are known as the "Jubilee" issue because they were issued during the year of the Golden Jubilee of the accession of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

to the throne in 1837. They continued in use throughout the remainder of Victoria's reign, and many of the designs were reused in the stamps of

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...

. The Jubilee issue includes the first British stamps to be printed in two colours.

Origins

The variety of colours and designs was partly in response to the much-disliked " Lilac and Green" issues of 1883-1884. The 1884 Stamp Committee was formed to make decisions about improved replacements. After several meetings, and considering a number of

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

s by De La Rue (many of which survive in the marketplace), they produced a report recommending the use of surface printing, two colours in

fugitive A fugitive (or runaway) is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from jail, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals. A fugitive from justice, also known ...

inks, coloured paper, and the dropping of the corner letters that had distinguished stamps on the sheet.

Issue

The 1887 issue generally followed the Committee's recommendations and the d, d, 2d, d, 3d, 4d, 5d, 6d, 9d and 1s values were put on sale 1 January 1887. A 10d value followed on 24 February 1890 and the d value on 15 September 1892. The stamps continued in use largely unchanged, though specialists identify shade variations, to the end of the century. From 17 April 1900, the halfpenny value was reprinted in blue-green, and the one-shilling value went to a two-colour scheme of carmine rose and green from 11 July 1900.

Values

Because of the lengthy period of use, the lower values of the issue are still quite common today and used copies are worth only a few pennies. Higher values generally rise in price according to the denomination, topped by an unmounted mint 1-shilling value, at about £150.

Errors

There are many known errors of this issue: *The d exists with printing on the gummed side, with double impressions and

imperforate For postage stamps, separation is the means by which individual stamps are made easily detachable from each other. Methods of separation include: # perforation: cutting rows and columns of small holes # rouletting: small horizontal and vert ...

. *The d exists with the purple part of the design printed twice. *The d can be found with printing on the gummed side and missing the 'd' in the value. The d, the d, the 2d, the d, the 3d, the 4d and the 10d all exist

. As well as this, all the stamps can be found with their

watermark A watermark is an identifying image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations ...

s inverted and with a "SPECIMEN"

overprint An overprint is an additional layer of text or graphics added to the face of a Postage stamp, postage or revenue stamp, postal stationery, banknote or Ticket (admission), ticket after it has been Printing, printed. Post offices most often use ...

. Most of the stamps in this issue can be found with slight

colour Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are assoc ...

variations and two different dies also exist.

Origins

Issue

Values

Errors

References

Further reading