You Want How Much For That Penny Stamp? Traditional Cache
You Want How Much For That Penny Stamp?
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Mr. William Bennet Perot was Postmaster of the Bermuda Post Office. In 1846 it cost a penny to mail a letter in Bermuda and the pennies supplemented his annual salary of 70 pounds.
The Bermuda Post Office Act made it mandatory for postage on mail to be prepid. This was not a problem during the day, but after the post office closed in the evenings it was another story. He placed a box outside where people could leave their letters and pennies. However, some people were dishonest and when he picked up the letters and pennies in the mornings, often there were more letters than pennies in the box. Thus cheating Mr.Perot out of his salary.
The solution to his problem came in the form of his friend Mr. James Bell Heyl, an American and proprietor of the Apothecaries Hall. Mr. Heyl suggested that he create adhesive labels with a distinctive mark on the front. Customers could buy stamps beforehand. This allowed Mr. Perot to sell these during the day, affix them to the envelope and customers could leave their letters in the outside box after post office closing hours.
His first unique postmarks were created on the stamps with black ink. He removed the month and day stamp from the postmark, leaving the words "Hamilton Bermuda" and the year. He stamped the postmark repeatedly on a piece of paper, wrote the words "One Penny" above the year, signed below the year and applied adhesive to the back. In June 1849 he changed the colour to red.
In 1897 three red ink stamps were discovered and were valued at 20 pounds. Later a black inked stamp was found and sold for 150 pounds. In 1957 a Perot stamp sold for 1500 pounds. Today the stamps have catalog value of up to 275,000 pounds each.
In honour of the 160th Anniversary of the Perot Stamps, a commemorative series of four stamps are being sold and are available at the Perot Post Office and at the Bermuda Port Office.
This cache is placed in honour of Mr. Perot and his penny stamp. It is located behind the Perot Post Office on Queen Street in Par-la-Ville Park. Although it is easy to get to, it is not wheelchair accessible.
****PLEASE NOTE****
The log sheet is in a CONTAINER. If I do not see your name on the log sheet your log will be DELETED.
And, if you say you have no pen/pencil to sign the log, send me a picture of the container and log in your hand, otherwise your log will also be deleted.
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