Halfpenny Yellow

An experimental free daily postal service for letters and newspapers was introduced between Valletta, the Three Cities, Gozo and some of the larger towns in Malta on 10 June 1853. British postage stamps were introduced in the islands in August 1857 for use on mail sent from Malta to foreign destinations. In 1859, the Council of Government decided that the free local postal service was to be withdrawn, and on 12 March 1859 the Committee of Supply set aside the sum of £110 for the cost of ordering a halfpenny stamp for local postage. The government informed the Crown Agents of this on 30 April 1859, who then commissioned the British printing company De La Rue to engrave a die for the new stamp. The stamp depicts a portrait of Queen Victoria wearing a diadem, set on an octagonal shield surrounded by olive leaves. The initial printing consisted of 100 sheets of 240 stamps each, and it was sent to Malta on 21 July 1859. The introduction of the stamp was announced in a Government notice dated 16 November 1860, and it was issued on 1 December so as to coincide with the start of the financial year. This particular letter sold for £5800 at an auction in December 2009. == Printings and technical details ==

The initial printing which was issued on 1 December 1860 consisted of stamps in a buff colour which were printed on blued unwatermarked paper. Between 1861 and 1884, 28 reprints of the stamp were made in a variety of different colour shades, on paper with a different watermark, and with differing perforations. The first few printings were on unwatermarked paper, while stamps printed between 1863 and 1881 had a Crown CC watermark. The last few printings which were made between 1882 and 1884 had a Crown CA watermark. These watermarks consisted of the letters "CC" or "CA" (both referring to the Crown Agents for the Colonies) beneath a representation of a crown. Varieties of some stamps also exist in which the watermarks are inverted or reversed. Another two printings in 1878 and 1879 had a perforation of 14 x 12½. Prior to 1878, the gutter between the panes of stamps in the sheet was perforated centrally, resulting in the stamps along the gutter having a large wing margin. After 1878, the configuration of the perforator was changed such that wing marginal stamps were no longer produced. In 1883, plans were being made to transfer control of Malta's postal services to the colonial government, and it was therefore proposed that the colour of the halfpenny stamp be changed from yellow to green in accordance with Universal Postal Union guidelines. In addition, new denominations of stamps would be needed to cater for postal rates to foreign destinations. A printing of ½d stamps in green was made in 1883 but was not issued immediately, while a final printing of the ½d yellow was made in 1884. The transfer of control took place on 1 January 1885 when the Malta Post Office was established. At this point, a new definitive set of six stamps including the ½d green which had been printed in 1883 was introduced, replacing both the Halfpenny Yellows and the British stamps used in Malta. == Collecting ==

illustrating the Halfpenny Yellow along with some stamps from Mauritius When the Halfpenny Yellow was first issued in 1860, stamp collecting was emerging as a popular new hobby in Europe. In some early philatelic literature, the stamp's issue date was incorrectly identified as 1861. There were a number of stamp collectors in Malta by the mid-1860s and early philatelists (then called timbrophilists) began to identify variations in the different printings. Some versions of the stamp such as that on bluish paper quickly became sought after, particularly by French collectors. In contemporary philatelic literature, some printings of the stamp were praised while others were poorly received. In a November 1866 article in ''The Stamp Collector's Magazine'', an anonymous Maltese collector identified stamps from an 1864 printing in orange as "the best that have as yet been circulated in the island, their bright colour bringing out the beauties of the engraving", but criticized a subsequent printing in buff as being "the ugliest stamp of the British colonies". The Halfpenny Yellow stamps are highly sought after by stamp collectors, == Legacy ==

within the frame of the Halfpenny Yellow The ½d green which replaced the Halfpenny Yellows was in regular use from 1885 to 1903, and due to its long period of use it is a very common stamp. After Queen Victoria died and was succeeded by King Edward VII, the new stamps which depicted the king had designs which were based on the Halfpenny Yellow. Between 1903 and 1911, various stamps with denominations ranging from ½d to 5/- were issued which featured the king's portrait set within the octagonal frame of the 1860 stamp. The stamp is also depicted on Malta's first postal card, which was issued on 6 May 1980 on the occasion of the London 1980 International Stamp Exhibition. The Maltex 2010 philatelic exhibition, which was held by the Malta Philatelic Society at the Hotel Phoenicia between 8 and 10 October 2010, was dedicated to the Halfpenny Yellow to coincide with the stamp's 150th anniversary. The exhibition included a number of displays which focused on the stamp and souvenirs which depicted it were also produced. On 1 December, MaltaPost commemorated the anniversary by issuing a miniature sheet depicting the earliest recorded cover with the Halfpenny Yellow as a stamp on stamp. For the occasion, the company also held an exhibition and talks about Maltese postal history at the National Library of Malta between 2 December 2010 and 8 January 2011. The 1860 stamp was also depicted on the cover of the year pack which contained all the stamps issued by MaltaPost during 2010. ==See also==