page_title: Board of Inland Revenue Stamping Department Archive
section_title: Selected rare items
hierarchical_section_title: Board of Inland Revenue Stamping Department Archive / Selected rare items
caption_attribution_description: English: The 1765 Stamp Act created a direct tax of one penny per sheet on newspapers and required that the newspapers be printed on stamped paper purchased from government agents. The Board of Stamps prepared two hundred copper dies and eight plates of the one-penny stamps. The design consists of a mantle; St. Edward's Crown encircled by the Order of the Garter; and a scepter and sword. At top is the word AMERICA; at bottom the denomination ONE PENNY and the number of the individual die. Dark red proof impressions of the plates were made on thick laid paper before production of the stamped paper began. Only thirty-two copies of the original dark-red proof impressions made in 1765 have survived. Twenty-six of these are contained in this partial proof sheet owned by the British Library Philatelic Collections. Five more — three singles and a pair — are in private hands, and the one is in the Smithsonian National Postal Museum's permanent collection.
context_page_description: The Board of Inland Revenue Stamping Department Archive in the British Library contains artefacts from 1710 onwards, and has come into existence through amendments in United Kingdom legislation.
  This collection is a key resource for researchers interested in Great Britain and some Commonwealth countries postal and revenue philately and particularly impressed duty stamps.
context_section_description: The archive includes a unique proof sheet of 26 Revenue 1765 Newspaper and Pamphlet one penny impressions showing the registration certificate. These were issued to apply the Stamp Act of 1765 intended to raise taxes to fund the defence of the American Colonies. The tax applied to legal documents, licenses, newspapers, pamphlets and almanacs in the American Colonies, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Florida, the Bahamas and the West Indian Islands. The taxes resulted in public protest and rioting. The tax was abandoned after a few months due to its unpopularity but the political damage contributed to the War of Independence in 1775. 32 copies of the original dark-red proof impressions made in 1765 have survived worldwide and 26 are on this sheet. Five are in private hands and one is in the Smithsonian National Postal Museum's permanent collection.
caption: Proof sheet of one-penny stamps submitted for approval to Commissioners of Stamps by engraver. 10 May 1765.
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