The British Penny Black stamp was introduced by the United Kingdom government on the 1st of May 1840 and was the world's first adhesive postage stamp ever to be produced. The Penny Black also seems to carry with it some sort of mystical fantasy that it's not only the rarest stamp in the world but also the most valuable stamp in the world. Sadly, neither is it the worlds rarest stamp nor the worlds most valuable!

The British postage stamp known as the Penny Black was the idea put forward in Sir Rowland Hill's revolutionary 1837 proposal to reform the British postal system. A simple single stamp indicating the prepayment of postage. In real terms, much like a receipt.

Before the Penny Black stamp ever existed, payment had to be taken in cash for every article to be posted and that had to be done in person at the post office. Now, you could have a supply of Penny Blacks of your own and use one stamp each time you wanted to post a letter. This made life easier for the postmaster and his staff and also for the user.

Now the Penny Black stamp is arguably the most famous British stamp ever issued, but a question must be asked, is it the most valuable stamp in the world?
Many of you think so and we see a lot of people on the Roadshow Tours with Penny Black's all with the same dream..


Candidates for being the most valuable stamp in the world are several and all are interesting stories, sufficient for us to deviate a little here and show you the leaders for the title, the most expensive stamp in the world.

One particular stamp is quite unique, it;' called the 1857 'Tre Skilling Banco' the Swedish stamp seen below. It was sold in November 1996 to a dealer from Sweden for an apparent sum in Swiss Francs near 2.87 million. That's approximately $USD 2.3 million dollars.
But why is this stamp one of the most valuable stamps in the world?