Sotheby's
- The oldest piece of mail to use a pre-paid Penny Black stamp is set to be auctioned in New York.
- The British Penny Black was the first-ever adhesive postage stamp.
- The letter cover has a sale estimate of $1.5 million to $2.5 million, per Sotheby's.
The oldest surviving piece of mail to use a pre-paid postage stamp is set to be auctioned at Sotheby's in New York.
The letter cover is adorned with a British Penny Black postage stamp, the world's first-ever adhesive postage stamp, and is dated May 2, 1840, just one day after the new stamp was released in the UK and four days before it was valid for use.
The document, known as "The Genesis of Philately," is one of the earliest known examples of the Penny Black stamp.
It was previously displayed at the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery in the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in 2014.