First postal order sold at auction

First postal order sold at auction

In this age of chip-and-pin, online banking, electronic money transfers and the like it is all too easy to overlook the humble cheque and its relation - the postal order. Here we have the very first postal order, which has defied the odds and survived intact for almost 130 years thanks to the man who originally drew it out and subsequent generations of his family who recognised its value to future collectors. Now that value has been realised and, perhaps unsurprisingly, it is far in excess not only of its original sum of 1 shilling (approximately 5 pence in today's money) but also the guide price put on it by the auction house!

I have no doubt that, despite the price paid, the new owner will be more than happy to have such an important piece of monetary history in his collection and I am sure that the original drawer of that postal order would have been pleased to see appreciated still.