Ten 1854 Penny Reds

Ten 1854 Penny Red Perforated Star, selection sent may vary to those shown.

The 1854 Penny Red bought about the biggest change in British stamps since 1840. The stamps were now printed using perforation machines which ended the practice of having to cut sheets of stamps by hand. The 'star' relates to the two stars in the top corners of each stamp whilst two letters in each bottom corner referred to the stamps print position. Perforations had first been experimented with in 1850 but were not officially adopted until this issue. They initially used a 16 gauge size which was reduced to 14 gauge in January 1855.