Focus on this artwork and explore the Significance.
The postcard has been verified by the British Philatelic Association's expert committee as being genuine and the world's oldest. Up to that time it was believed the concept of the postcard had been invented in the United States, Germany, or Austria. Twentieth-century postcard collectors thought the first postcards were made some twenty years later, in the 1860s. The Penny Penates is also the only known postcard with a Penny Black stamp—the world's oldest self-adhesive postage stamp, normally used just for letters.  First issued 1 May 1840, the Penny Black stamp was changed to a red-brown version a year later because the red ink used for cancelling the black stamp could be easily washed off and the stamp reused without additional payment.British postal protocol for postcards designated through tradition that no part of a message could be put on the address side of it. The address side could contain only the sender's name, address, and return request if it couldn't be delivered. The address side with the postage stamp of a postcard was considered the front side. A committee of the British Post Office in 1896 recommended that this custom be discontinued. A rule in 1899 was put in place that there no longer would be instructions determining the tradition be followed.
red-brown version Penny Black postcard British Philatelic Association Penates