Archive 003 — Penny Black

Penny Black

The stamp that changed the way the world communicated.

On 6 May 1840, Great Britain introduced the Penny Black, the world’s first adhesive postage stamp. It was the result of Rowland Hill’s revolutionary postal reform: instead of the recipient paying a complicated fee based largely on distance, postage could now be prepaid at a simple, uniform rate.

Its unmistakable portrait of the young Queen Victoria was based on a medal created by sculptor William Wyon. Henry Corbould adapted the image, Charles and Frederick Heath engraved it, and the stamps were printed by Perkins, Bacon & Petch. The Penny Black went on sale in London on 1 May 1840 and officially became valid for postage five days later. The Postal Museum

More than a stamp, it became the beginning of a system that would spread across the world and transform the way people communicated.

With Archive 003, this landmark of postal history takes on a new form. Reimagined as a 100-piece miniature puzzle, the Penny Black becomes an object to assemble, contemplate and collect.

Finished with a delicate soft-touch surface for a refined, tactile feel.

100 pieces · 10 × 14 cm · Collectible mini puzzle · STAMP → OBJECT™