MaltaFirst Postage Stamp

One halfpenny for 25 years

Malta’s postal service was already decades old when it issued its first stamp in 1860. An Island Postmaster had been appointed in 1802, and a British Packet Agency followed in 1806. British stamps carried letters abroad, but a new halfpenny rate for local mail called for a Maltese stamp of its own. Showing Queen Victoria, it remained Malta’s only stamp denomination until 1885. British stamps used on the island bore the distinctive A25 cancellation. The design stayed familiar, but the printings changed. Malta SG 1 is buff on blued, unwatermarked paper, perforated 14. An unwatermarked example on ordinary white paper may be early, but it wouldn’t be the first. Some specialised literature distinguishes around 20 combinations of shade, paper, watermark and perforation. Getting that identification right matters: a first printing can be worth ten times as much as a common later one. To my eye, its buff colour can look pale and faded, and off-centre examples are common. The blued, unwatermarked paper is the clue I’d check first. Oneglia and Sperati both forged the halfpenny, adding another reason to look closely. For 25 years, Malta kept returning to the same halfpenny design. For collectors today, the challenge is finding the one that started it all.