Category:Bantam

Name given to stamps smaller than that normally produced at the time.

The first Bantams were produced by Great Britain in 1870 as a cost cutting exercise in production costs. The standard rate of postage had been 1d, Book and paper rates introduced in 1870 where at the reduced rate of ½d. In order to reduce the overall cost for the new business, Perkins & Bacon the then printers of the Line Engraved stamps were asked to look at reducing the production costs. The agreed solution was to create half size stamps. Other countries like South Africa and SWA followed the same solution during World War II as an economy measure.

½d block IF-KH Plate 12