英国: “柯尔库布里”封

 

 

The “Kirkcudbright” Cover

 

In 1839, following commercial and political pressure, the British Government decided that the operations of the Post Office should be reformed and that in particular the cost of postage in Great Britain should be reduced.  To that time, postage was charged by distance and the number of sheets or pages in a letter.  For this reason mail was usually “lettersheets” – folded sheets of paper – and envelopes were very rarely used for general mail.  Another factor affecting the expenses of the Post Office was that many people had the right to free postage.

 

By 1840 that had all changed, and in January of that year a basic charge (to be paid by all) of one penny for a letter weighing half an ounce was introduced without regard to distance, with increased rates for higher weights.  At the same time there was no extra charge for more than one sheet, so envelopes began to come into use.  And another change was that postage had to be paid in advance at time of posting, and not by the recipient as had been the case previously.

 

It was necessary to introduce a system for clearly showing that postage had been paid in advance, so the idea of a “label” (to be stuck to a letter) was developed and after much work on various designs, the Penny Black was the outcome.

 

Available in London to purchase from Post Offices on 1 May 1840, the stamp became valid for postal use on 6 May that year.  All letters bearing the stamps had to be “cancelled” by Post Office staff so that the stamps could not be re-used.  The arrangement was that staff had a special canceller in the form of a cross (the “Maltese Cross”) and had to use a red ink to a specified formula.  Unfortunately it was then found that the red ink cancel could be erased and stamps re-used, so a black cancelling ink was proposed.  Equally unfortunately, black ink cancels were quite difficult for Post Office staff to see when applied to a black stamp in poorly lit offices, so the Penny stamp in black can be regarded as a mistake.  By February 1841 the stamp colour was changed to red, and cancelled with a black cancel – making it much easier for Post Office staff to detect if a stamp was being re-used.

 

The cover in this frame (to Kirkcudbright in Scotland, hence its name), in fact a wrapper enclosing legal documents, must have weighed between 4 and 5 ounces to be charged 10 pence.  It was posted on the first day of validity and has the largest number of Penny Blacks (10) known on a First Day Cover.  The next highest number known on a first day cover is a pair.

 

 

英国: “柯尔库布里”封

 

1839年，随着商业和政治的压力，英国政府决定对邮政事务进行改革，尤其是在降低国内的邮政资费方面。当时，邮费是按信件的寄递路程和一封信内信纸的张数计算的。为此，当时的邮件通常呈“信简”式样——即由纸张折叠而成，信封很少被用于一般的邮件。影响邮局成本的另一个因素是有很多人享受邮资免费的权利。

 

到1840年有了全面的改变。从那年1月开始，所有的信件都必须支付费用，基本的资费标准是每重半盎司的信件为1便士，而不再考虑信件寄递的距离。对于超重的信件，按此费率类推。同时，信纸超过1张也不再增收额外的费用。所以，信封开始得到使用。另一个变动是，邮资必须在投寄信件前预先支付，而不是原先的由收件人支付的方式。

 

清楚表明已按标准预付邮资是必要的，因此产生了在信封上粘贴“标签”（label）的想法，经过各种不同的设计等许多工作之后，黑便士邮票正式诞生了。

 

1840年5月1日在伦敦的多个邮局已能买到邮票，但邮票作为合法有效的邮资使用是在那年的5月6日。 所有贴票的信件须经邮局职员予以“盖销”，从而使邮票不能重复使用。邮局职员使用特别的十字形销盖戳（马耳他十字戳），并且按规定使用红色油墨。然而，不幸地发现红色油墨能被消除，邮票就有可能被重复使用。因此，提议使用黑色油墨。 同样不幸的是，邮局职员要在简陋的办公室内识别盖在黑色邮票上的黑色油墨也很困难，因此便士邮票使用黑色可称是个失误。到了1841年2月，邮票的颜色改为红色，并且使用黑色邮戳销盖——这对邮局职员查验邮票是否重复使用就比较容易了。

 

该“柯尔库布里”封（因寄至苏格兰的kirkcudbright而得名)，实际上是一件寄递法律文书的封套，重量应在4-5盎司之间，邮资为10个便士。 它是在合法有效的首日寄出，并且据知是在首日封上粘贴黑便士邮票数量最多的（10枚）。在首日封上贴邮票第二多的则是一个双连。