An Antiques Roadshow expert has been left stunned after a rare item worth millions appeared on the show. BBC viewers were shocked by the item which is believed to be one of the "rarest" and "most valuable" things to be brought on the show.
Expert Frances Christie was left inspecting a sheet of stamps with the late Queen Victoria's face on them during the latest edition of the show, reports Birmingham Live. During which she said: "This could actually be one of the most valuable things we've ever had on the Antiques Roadshow, certainly one of the rarest."
When asked how he got the stamps, the guest explained that the "Penny Back was introduced as a method of prepayment postage. Until the late 1830s, postage was paid for by the recipient."
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The expert then explained that due to their mint condition, each stamp was each worth between £2,000 - £3,000. She said: "There has never been a full sheet like this which has come up on the market
"I mean, it's never going to come up but if it is ever to come up it's worth what someone would pay for it, but really, this is [worth] multiples of millions." The Penny Black was used from May 6, 1840 and introduced a flat rate.
Before this, the recipient paid the postage cost. The stamp was a runaway success when it went on sale, and allowed people to send a letter weighing up to half an ounce to any destination in the country for a flat rate of one penny.
Eventually more than 68 million stamps were sold. The chosen design of the stamp used an image of Queen Victoria based on a sketch of her aged 15, and this image remained on the stamps for more than 60 years until her death in 1901.
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