For what practical reason was the famous Penny Black poststamp replaced, after one year, by the Penny Red?

looney_tunes

Because the cancellation (in red ink) was both hard to see and easy to remove, which allowed people to reuse the stamps. After a year, the Penny Red was introduced, and the cancellation changed to a more effective black ink. "The Penny Black, the world's first adhesive postage stamp of a public postal system, was issued by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 May 1840, for use from 6 May of that year. ... The Penny Black was in use for only a little over a year. It was found that a red cancellation was hard to see on a black background. Also, the red ink was easy to remove from the Penny Black, making it possible to re-use stamps, even after they had been cancelled. In 1841 the Treasury switched to the Penny Red and issued cancellation devices with black ink. The black ink, which was much more effective as a cancellation, was also harder to remove. The re-use of stamps with the un-cancelled portions of two stamps to form an unused whole impression continued and in 1864 the stars in the top corners were replaced by the check letters, as they appeared in the lower corners, but in reverse order." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black Feb 02 09, 4:49 AM