page_title: Revenue stamps of the United Kingdom
section_title: Key types
hierarchical_section_title: Revenue stamps of the United Kingdom / Adhesive revenue stamps / Key types
caption_attribution_description: English: Transfer duty revenue stamps of the U.K.
context_page_description: Revenue stamps of the United Kingdom refer to the various revenue or fiscal stamps, whether adhesive, directly embossed or otherwise, which were issued by and used in the Kingdom of England, the Kingdom of Great Britain, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, from the late 17th century to the present day.
  The first impressed duty stamps were issued by the Kingdom of England in accordance with the Stamps Act 1694. Impressed duty stamps were used to pay a multitude of taxes in the centuries since then, and they are still in use as of 2010.
  The first adhesive revenue stamps were chocolate duty stamps issued in the 1740s, but no examples of these have survived today. The oldest known adhesive stamps of which examples still exist were issued in the 1780s for duties on hats, gloves and perfume. British revenue stamps therefore predate the first postage stamp, the Penny Black, which was issued in 1840. Surface printed revenues which had designs similar to postage stamps were first issued in 1853, and in 1855 embossed adhesive stamps began to be issued.
context_section_description: In 1872, a series of standard dies for revenue stamps were prepared by De La Rue. These designs depicted Queen Victoria and had a blank tablet at the bottom, which could then be overprinted with an inscription denoting for what the stamp was used for. They are therefore regarded as key type stamps. Each value had a different design, and the pence, shilling and pound values had different sizes.
  Upon the accession of King Edward VII, a set of new designs bearing the portrait of the new monarch was introduced. The same basic designs were reused with the portraits of King George V, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II, with some new values being added over the years. Initially, De La Rue was responsible for both making the printing plates and printing the stamps. In 1910, printing was taken over by the Stamp Office. At first the existing De La Rue plates continued to be used, until the Royal Mint took over the work of making the plates in 1915. His Majesty's Stationery Office became responsible for the printing in 1934.
  In 1971, new stamps had to be printed due to decimalization, and both the printing plates and the printing itself was carried out by De La Rue. The quality of printing declined substantially in the late 1970s, as the printing might have been subcontracted. A new key type was introduced in around 1990 but it was only used for a few stamps as by then, the amount of revenue stamps that were in use had decreased considerably.
  Examples of appropriations on the key types include Bankruptcy, Contract Note, Foreign Bill and Passport.
caption: 2/- Transfer Duty stamps with a key type design, 1891–93
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