The Perot Provisional stamp, or the Perot Postmaster’s Provisional of Bermuda, is the first printed stamp of Bermuda. William Bennet Perot, the postmaster of the town of Hamilton, always put a mailbox outside the post office for the convenience of users. The users could put their letters in the box together with their required postage (1 penny each). However, in most cases, the postage in the mailbox was not enough, and Perot had to deliver all the mails himself.
James Bell Heyl, a friend of Perot, suggested he issued his own stamp. Heyl removed the dates from the postmark and stamped it on a piece of paper. Perot then wrote the words “1 penny” above the year on the stamp, and signed his name below. A round temporary postage stamp was born.
Today, only 11 pieces of the stamp have been found. Most of them are now owned by European royalty, including Queen Elizabeth herself. As early as in 1981, a piece of Perot Provisional stamp had a marked price of US$115,000.
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