Black magic; HISTORY OF THE pounds 70,000 STAMP antiques.

AT the outset, let me make it absolutely clear: the famous Penny Black stamp is nine times out of 10 worth between a few pounds and perhaps pounds 20.

Occasionally, an example is found that might fetch pounds 100-pounds 200, because of factors such as condition, date of issue, the letter to which it is attached, the crispness of the plate from which it was printed and so on. More than 60 million were issued so there is no shortage.

That said, and as the Daily Post revealed on Thursday, a single Penny Black has sold to an American philatelist for a massive pounds 70,000 in a Llangollen auction. With buyer's premium, the price rises to pounds 80,500.

Michael Bain, senior partner of Warrington auctioneers Lloyd Cameron, made it clear this was a rare, if not unique survivor.

The Penny Black, the world's first adhesive postage stamp, was issued on May 1 1840, for use from May 6 of that year.

He said: "Although all London post offices received official issues of the new stamps, other offices throughout the UK did not, and continued to accept postage payments in cash only for some time. Post offices in some other localities, such as those in the city of Bath, began offering the stamp unofficially on May 2."

As can be seen in the illustration, the envelope is clearly postmarked - or cancelled to use the jargon - on May 2, four days before the official launch.

The stamp was in superb condition, but the postmark made all the difference - reason enough to check your childhood stamp collection!

The Penny Black was the idea of Scottish printer James Chalmers, who suggested a stamp purchased by the sender of a letter was a more efficient - and therefore cheaper - way of collecting revenue than the existing method of persuading the recipient to pay on delivery, according to weight and distance travelled.

Chalmers put the idea to the great social and educational reformer Sir Rowland Hill.

After considerable delays and obstructions, the measure was included in the Budget on July 12, 1839 and subsequently carried by the Commons.

Hill's timing was just right. The coming of railways meant deliveries could be speeded up and a steady increase in literacy saw a boom in letter writing.

Between 1838 and 1864, the number of letters handled by the Post Office rose from 76 million to 642 million.

The North Wales saleroom handling the sale of the Penny Black was the inaugural fine art and collectables event run by Aqueduct Auctions, based at the Methodist Chapel, Froncysyllte, near Llangollen. The saleroom is managed by Colin Knights, who has more than 20 years' experience in the antiques trade.

The sale also dispersed a quantity of 17th century and later silver, paintings, ceramics, ephemera and furniture previously owned by the Davies-Cooke family at Gwysaney Hall, near Mold.

According to a book by GA Usher detailing the history of the Gwysaney and Owston estates, the Davies family can be traced back to Rhodri Mawr, king of all Wales in the middle 9th century. In 1964, the Gwysaney estate occupied some 2,000 acres.

At the auction, a number of silver lots were purchased on behalf of a member of a royal family in Asia specifically for their palace museum, including a miniature silver hunting horn applied with a hound, inscribed 'Anglesey Hunt' and hallmarked London 1937. It sold for pounds 950 plus buyer's premium.

CAPTION(S):

The blockbuster Bath Penny Black (below), sold by Aqueduct Auctions, and (left) the largest known multiple of Penny Blacks on a cover (envelope) sold at Spink in London in October last year for pounds 143,850