In 1843 the Canton of Zurich decided to issue stamps to prepay postage. These were issued in two denominations: the 4-rappen for local letters, and a 6-rappen value for use on letters to other cantonal districts. With these issues the canton of Zurich became the pioneer in continental Europe, and the second government in the entire world, to issue postage stamps. If you take a look at the design of this issue, you may clearly see that the artist used a famous Penny Black of Great Britain as a model. There is a fundamental similarity in the side and top panels, the corner squares and in the background, while the large figure of value takes the place of the Queen’s head.
Zurich 1846 4r black, featuring black Rosette cancel of Winterthur, was sold for $12,650 by Cherrystone auction in July, 2013.
Leave a Reply