Saint HelenaFirst Postage Stamp

The Island that held Napoleon

Few places are remembered for a single prisoner. Thirty-five years after Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on Saint Helena, the island issued its first postage stamp on 1 January 1856. The entire first issue consisted of a single value, a 6d blue imperforate stamp recess-printed by Perkins Bacon in London. Issued with a six-pointed star watermark, often clearly visible from the back, it prepaid a ½ ounce letter to Britain. The stamp appears blurry in the image, a characteristic often seen on this issue rather than a result of the photograph. Many surviving examples show soft or indistinct details in the portrait and lettering. For collectors interested in forgeries, Roger West documented sixteen different forgery types of this issue. While genuine examples remain affordable, some rare cancellations sell for tens of thousands of pounds today. It is hard not to wonder what Napoleon would have thought. When he arrived on Saint Helena in 1815, a letter to Europe was still a slow and uncertain voyage. Just four decades later, the island that became his final prison had joined the world's growing postal network through a small blue stamp bearing the portrait of Queen Victoria, carrying news, ideas, and personal stories across the seas.