# Today (1 May) is the 175th anniversary of the first adhesive postage stamp

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-1-may-is-the-175th-anniversary-of-the-first-adhesive-postage-stamp/718943>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [May 1, 2015, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-1-may-is-the-175th-anniversary-of-the-first-adhesive-postage-stamp/718943 "2015-05-01T01:04:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2015, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-1-may-is-the-175th-anniversary-of-the-first-adhesive-postage-stamp/718943/1 "2015-05-01T01:04:36Z")

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According to Google…and of course it’s the Penny Black, issued on 1 May 1840 in the UK, featuring the profile of Queen Victoria.

The initial print run was fairly large (68,808,000 stamps), so many specimens of the Penny Black have survived. Not so for the world’s rarest postage stamp, the [British Guiana 1c magenta](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Guiana_1c_magenta), of which only one specimen is known. It sold at auction on 17 June 2014 for US$9,480,00 - the world record for a single stamp auction price.