album · page i · old noem (the first issue)
1 d · issued 1851 · printed by the old noem royal works
the first stamp ever issued by the kingdom — thirteen years before the two-pence blue, and from a noem that called itself old only in retrospect. the profile is the late king, who died the year of the issue, which is why the lithograph stone was retired after a single printing of seventy thousand and almost ceremonially smashed.
the engraving is poor. the king's nose is too long; his shoulder is too short. the post office disliked it and replaced the issue within the year. the new design — by a different hand — was politer and less like the man. collectors prefer the first.
this stamp is also the only surviving image of the printer's mark of the royal works, a small bracketed letter K in the bottom margin of the sheet. all later issues used the K alone, without the brackets.
field-note · hold it to a lamp. there is an extra perforation hole between the fourth and fifth on the right edge — every example has it.
see also · two-pence blue · three-pence brown · archive franking · a letter · the drawer