A postage stamp is adhesive paper evidence of a fee paid for postal services. Usually a small rectangle attached to an envelope, the stamp signifies the person sending it has fully or partly paid for delivery. Postage stamps are the most popular way of paying for retail mail; alternatives include postal stationery such as prepaid-postage envelopes, post cards, lettercards, aerogrammes and newspaper wrappers in addition to printed postal impressions and postage meters. The study of postage stamps is called philately. Stamp collecting is a hobby.
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Several people laid claims that they invented the postage stamp.
Rowland Hill The Englishman Sir Rowland Hill first started to take a serious interest in postal reforms in 1835.[1] In 1836 the Member of Parliament Robert Wallace, provided Hill with numerous books and documents, which Hill described as a “half hundred weight of material”.[2] Hill commenced a detailed study of these documents and this led him to the publication, in early 1837, of a pamphlet entitled “Post Office Reform its Importance and Practicability”. He submitted a copy of this to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Thomas Spring-Rice, on 4 January 1837.[3] This first edition was marked “private and confidential” and was not released to the general public. The Chancellor summoned Hill to a meeting during which the Chancellor suggested improvements, asked for reconsiderations and requested a supplement which Hill duly produced and supplied on 28 January 1837.[4]
Rowland Hill then received a summons to give evidence before the Commission for Post Office Enquiry on 13 February 1837. During his evidence he read from the letter he had written to the Chancellor which included the statement “…by using a bit of paper just large enough to bear the stamp, and covered at the back with a glutinous wash…”.[5][6] This is the first publication of a very clear description of an adhesive postage stamp. It must be remembered that the phrase postage stamp did not yet exist at that time. Shortly afterwards the second edition of Hill’s booklet, dated 22 February 1837, was published and this was made available to the general public. This booklet, containing some 28,000 words, incorporated the supplement he gave to the Chancellor and the statements he made to the Commission.
Hansard records that on 15 December 1837 Mr Benjamin Hawes asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer “whether it was the intention of the Government to give effect to the recommendation of the Commissioners of the Post-office, contained in their ninth report relating to the reduction of the rates of postage, and the issuing of penny stamps?”[7]
James Chalmers The first documentary evidence for the Scotchman James Chalmers’ claim is the essay and proposal he submitted for adhesive postage stamps, to the General Post Office, dated 8 February 1838 and received by the Post Office on 17 February 1838.[8] In this document, of some 800 words, about methods of franking letters he states “Therefore, if Mr Hill’s plan of a uniform rate of postage … I conceive that the most simple and economical mode … would be by Slips … in the hope that Mr Hill’s plan may soon be carried into operation I would suggest that sheets of Stamped Slips should be prepared … then be rubbed over on the back with a strong solution of gum …”. The original of this document is now in the National Postal Museum. The weights and postage amounts on these essays are those that were proposed by Hill in February 1837.
It is clear that James Chalmers was aware of Rowland Hill’s proposals, but it is not clear whether he had obtained a copy of Hill’s booklet or if he had read about it in the Times. The Times had, on two occasions, on 25 March 1837[9]and on 20 December 1837[10] reported in great detail Hill’s proposals. In neither report was there any mention of “a bit of paper just large enough to bear the stamp”. So if Chalmers had only read the Times he would have been completely unaware that Hill had already made the proposal for “a bit of paper…”.
James Chalmers organised petitions “for a low and uniform rate of postage”. The first such petition was presented in the House of Commons on 4 December 1837 (from Montrose).[11] Further petitions organised by him were presented on 1 May 1838 (from Dunbar and Cupar), 14 May 1838 (from the county of Forfar) and 12 June 1839. Many other people were concurrently organising petitions and presenting them to Parliament. All these petitions were presented after Hill’s proposals had been published.
The claim that James Chalmers was the inventor of the postage stamp first surfaced in 1881 when the book “The Penny Postage Scheme of 1837”, written by his son, Patrick Chalmers, was published.[12] In this book the son claims that James Chalmers first produced an essay for a stamp in August 1834 but no evidence for this is provided in the book. Patrick Chalmers continued to campaign, to have his father recognised as the inventor, until he died in 1891.
Lovrenc Košir In 1835 the Austrian Lovrenc Košir suggested the introduction of "artificially affixed postal tax stamps".[13] His suggestion was looked at in detail and rejected.
Other claimants Other claimants include or have included[14]
Although a number of people laid a claim to the concept of the postage stamp, postage stamps were first introduced in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on May 1, 1840, as part of postal reforms promoted by Sir Rowland Hill. With its introduction the postage fee was to be paid by the sender and not the recipient, though sending mail prepaid was not a requirement. The first stamp, the penny black, put on sale on May 1st, was valid from May 6, 1840; two days later came the two pence blue. Both show an engraving of the young Queen Victoria and were a success though refinements like perforations were instituted later. At the time, there was no reason to include the United Kingdom's name on the stamp, and the UK remains the only country not to identify itself by name on the stamps[15][16] (the monarch's head is used as identification).
Stamps were not officially perforated until January 1854,[17] except in the parliamentary session of 1851,[17] when stamps perforated by Mr. Archer were issued at the House of Commons. In 1853, the Government paid Mr. Archer £4,000 for the patent.[17]
Other countries followed with their own stamps: the Canton of Zürich in Switzerland issued the Zurich 4 and 6 rappen on March 1, 1843. Although the Penny Black could send a letter less than half an ounce anywhere within the United Kingdom, the Swiss continued to calculate mail rates on distance. Brazil issued the Bull's Eye stamps on August 1, 1843. Using the same printer as for the Penny Black, Brazil opted for an abstract design instead of a portrait of Emperor Pedro II so that his image would be not be disfigured by the postmark. In 1845 some postmasters in the United States issued their own stamps, but the first official stamps came in 1847, with 5 and 10 cent stamps depicting Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. A few other countries issued stamps in the late 1840s. Many more, such as India, started in the 1850s and by the 1860s most countries had stamps.
Following the introduction of the stamp in the UK the number of letters increased from 82 million in 1839 to 170 million in 1841. Today 21 billion items are delivered by post every year in the United Kingdom.[citation needed]
Stamps have been issued in shapes besides rectangle, including circular, triangular and pentagonal. Sierra Leone and Tonga issued stamps in the shapes of fruit; Bhutan issued one with its national anthem on a playable record. Stamps have been made of embossed foil (sometimes of gold); Switzerland made a stamp partly of lace and one of wood; the United States produced one of plastic, and the German Democratic Republic issued a stamp of synthetic chemicals. In the Netherlands a stamp was made of silver foil. On paper, stamps have been produced by a variety of printing techniques such as lithography, line engraving, photogravure, intaglio and web offset printing.
On the first day of issue a set of stamps can be purchased attached to an envelope with a commemorative postmark. Known as a First Day Cover, it can also be assembled from the component parts by stamp collectors, who are the most frequent users. These envelopes usually bear a commemorative cachet of the subject for which the stamp was created.
Postage stamps are sometimes issued in souvenir sheets or miniature sheets containing one or a small number of stamps. Souvenir sheets typically include additional artwork or information printed on the selvage, the border surrounding the stamps. Sometimes the stamps make up a greater picture. Some countries, and some issues, are produced as individual stamps as well as sheets.
Stamp collecting is a popular hobby. Collecting is not the same as philately, which is the study of stamps. It is not necessary to closely study stamps in order to enjoy collecting them. Many casual collectors enjoy accumulating stamps without worrying about the tiny details. The creation of a large or comprehensive collection, however, may require some philatelic knowledge.
Stamp collectors are an important source of revenue for some small countries who create limited runs of elaborate stamps designed mainly to be bought by stamp collectors. The stamps produced by these countries may far exceed their postal needs. The hundreds of countries, each producing scores of different stamps each year, resulted in 400,000 types of stamp by 2000. Annual world output averages about 10,000 types.
Collectors need to be aware that they are vulnerable to exploitation by countries which produce stamps intended primarily for collectors rather than for postal use. These stamps are often "cancelled to order" meaning they are postmarked without ever having passed through the postal system. Most national post offices produce stamps that would not be produced if there were no collectors but some are more prolific than others. It is up to individual collectors whether this concerns them.
Good examples of excessive issues have been the stamps produced by Nicholas F. Seebeck and the component states of the United Arab Emirates. Seebeck operated in the 1890s as agent of Hamilton Bank Note Company and approached Latin American countries with an offer to produce their entire postage stamp needs free. In return he would have exclusive rights to market stamps to collectors. Each year a new issue was produced but it expired at the end of the year. This assured Seebeck of a continuing supply of remainders. In the 1960s, printers such as the Barody Stamp Company contracted to produce stamps for the separate Emirates and other countries. These abuses combined with the sparse population of the desert states earned them the name of the "sand dune" countries. Recently, at the time of the millenium, Great Britain issued 96 different stamps over about 24 months, all for pre-existing values with the same four rates for each set.
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