First postage stamps or the roots of stamp collecting

Postage stamps have long and very captivating history. People still debate about the man who has invented this thing. There are a lot of candidates to the title of the first stamp inventor. According to the documents, postage stamps appeared in the United Kingdom in 1840 and became a crucial part of postal reforms. From that time till now the sender not the recipient pays postage fee with the help of stamps. First countries that also adopted the usage of postage stamps were Switzerland, Brazil, the United States of America and India, so they are also pioneers in the field of philately. It is doubtless, that these particular states have the richest history connected with different postage stamps.

All first stamps had the same size and shape, they were rectangular and different famous political figures, including Queens and Presidents, were depicted on them. After a while the shape, size and pictures of postage stamps changed. Some innovations were warmly welcomed by citizens and the others were widely criticized not only by people, but also by the press. In 1869 a big scandal occurred in the U.S., because the post office used pictures of horse and train together with pictures of Presidents. Can you imagine a sheet of post stamps without perforations? During the first decades of stamps existence there were no perforations. In 1854 the United Kingdom was the first to use perforation and “The Penny Red” had become the first perforated postage stamp. 

Penny Black became the first postage stamp in the whole world that was used in a public postal system. Produced in 1840, this unique philatelic item features Queen Victoria. However, Penny Black isn’t a very rare stamp. More than 68 million specimens were issued, and practically all of them were printed in black color. Mint blocks were made without perforations. Nowadays, it can be bought for 4000 pounds.

Penny Black was originally for use only within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and as such was, in effect, initially a local stamp. For this reason the name of the country was not included within the design, a situation which continued by agreement with foreign post offices, provided the sovereign's effigy appeared on the stamp. Envelopes sold with postage paid did not include this, so they were marked with the country's name. In 1951, the special commemorative issue for the Festival of Britain included the name "Britain" incidentally. It could therefore be said that the name of the country then appeared for the first time on a stamp of the UK, although the word "British" had appeared on British Empire Exhibition commemorative stamps of 1924.

It soon became obvious that black was a not a good choice of stamp colour, since any cancellation marks were hard to see, and from 1841 onwards, the stamps were printed in a brick-red hue. The Penny Reds continued in use for decades with about 21 billion being produced.

United States

The postal history of the United States was rather haphazard until after the Revolutionary War, when eventually a national postal system was established. Stampless letters, paid for by the receiver, and private postal systems, continued until the introduction of adhesive postage stamps, first issued by the U.S. government post office July 1, 1847 in the denominations of five and ten cents.

The first stamp issues were authorized by an act of Congress and approved on March 3, 1847. The earliest known use of the Franklin 5¢ is July 7, 1847, while the earliest known use of the Washington 10¢ is July 2, 1847.

The 5-cent stamp is considered to be very rare because each of these items were hand engraved in what is believed to be steel, and laid out in sheets of 200 stamps. A fresh and brilliantly printed 5-cent stamp is prized by collectors.

Nowadays the demand is such that a very fine 5¢ sells for around $500 as of 2003, and the 10¢ in very fine condition sells for around $1,400 in used form. Unused stamps are much scarcer, fetching around $6,000 and $28,000 respectively, if in very fine condition. One can pay as little as 5 to 10 percent of these figures if the stamps are in poor condition.

So the full series of first national postage stamps included a 1¢ profile of Franklin in blue, a 3¢ profile of Washington in red brown, a 5¢ portrait of Thomas Jefferson, and portraits of Washington for 10¢ green and 12¢ black values. Sometimes they are difficult to define and even sharp-eyed collectors periodically find the rare types going unrecognized.

Canada

The postal and philatelic history of Canada concerns the territories, which have formed the country of today. Before the Canadian confederation was united, the British colonies which were British Columbia and Vancouver Island, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland issued stamps in their own names.

The first stamp issued in New Brunswick was unveiled in 1851. These were four items that were diamond-shaped and bore the New Brunswick coat of arms. The stamps were imperforate and denominated in pence. In 1860, six new items, denominated in cents, were issued. The 1¢ depicted a steam locomotive, the 2¢, 5¢, and 10¢ values showed a young Queen Victoria, while the 12½¢ depicted a steamship and the 17¢ showed the Prince of Wales in Highland regalia.

This region has a long postal history. To be precise Newfoundland had issued stamps for the period of 90-year. The first issues were in 1857. The last one was in 1947, 2 years prior to Newfoundland joining the confederation. These stamps remain valid for postal mail delivered anywhere in Canada.

Nova Scotia's first issue was from 1851 to 1857, in pence. The second issue, in cents, was from 1861 to 1863.

Prince Edward Island produced stamps in pence from 1862–1865, and the second series - from 1868 to 1870. The third series, in cents, was issued in 1872.

France

Ceres series become the first postage stamps in France and they were firstly published in 1849. The image and gravure for this issue were made by Jacques-Jean Barre. Ceres stamps were introduced due to the postal reform, and there were several variants of them. The first two were 20 centimes black and 1 franc red. These were followed by 40 centimes orange and 20 centimes blue stamps. The whole first series of French stamps wasn’t perforated, but was published in several colors. Philatelists consider Ceres postage stamps as highly collectible.

Germany

In Germany several well-known, rare and very expensive postage stamps were published. One kreuzer black has become the first stamp produced in Bavaria. It happened in 1849 and Munich has become the hometown for this issue. In 1849 the item cost 1 kreuzer, but today all interested people can buy unused one kreuzer black for 600 dollars and used one for 1,600 dollars. All in all 832,500 postage stamps were released and the present number of them is unknown.

Belgium

First Belgium stamps were called Epaulettes and on all of them featured the portrait of King Leopold I. Originally they were published in Brussels in 1849 in two variants. The first variant was brown and cost 10 centimes and the second one was blue and cost 20 centimes. These postages stamps had no perforations and soon were replaced by other stamps. Nevertheless, these items were the first. Collectors can acquire a mint block of Epaulettes stamps for 7,100 Euro approx.

Brazil

The first postage stamps published in Brazil have very interesting and non-trivial name, they were called Bull’s Eye. The initial Brazilian philatelic issue was published on 1 August 1843. There were three stamps with different price of 30, 60 and 90 reis. More than 2 million stamps of this kind were printed. These stamps started the tradition of non-trivial names, as some issues created after Bull’s Eye were known as cat’s eye, goat’s eye and even snake eye.

India

On the first Indian Stamp was depicted Queen Victoria, it was published 1854 and was created without perforations. People had to cut the stamps from the large sheet with the help of scissors. Lately the whole sheet of these stamps was sold for 700 and 2200 dollars. This stamp was published in red using Coat of Arms as the watermark.

Switzerland

Switzerland also created interesting and well-known postage stamp — Basel Dove. It has become the first three-colour stamp in the whole world. This unique item was produced in the Swiss canton of Basel in 1845. The stamp shows a dove with a letter in its beak. This bird was a symbol of postal service at that canton. The design of the stamp was made in black, crimson and blue colours. It is not known how many examples of Basel Dove survived, but this stamp is thought to be quiet unique and valuable. The price for such a lot would range from 18,000 to 37,000 Swiss francs.

Ceylon

Practically all British colonies created their own stamps, and Ceylon didn’t become an exception to this rule. Its first postage stamp, which is now famous as Dull Rose, was published in 1859. In 19th century this item cost 4 pence, but  nowadays Dull Rose is considered to be one of the most expensive and rare Ceylon postage stamps.

Japan

The first Japanese stamps were issued in April 1871, in a set of four covering the different postal rates. These items had two-color design that consisted of a pair of dragons facing towards the center, where the characters of value were printed in black. The denominations were in mon, which had already been superseded by the yen. Although this stamp is not very expensive today, it is still quite interesting for collectors.

Malta

Malta’s first stamp is very interesting and have a non-trivial name — Halfpenny Yellow. The first sheet was published in 1860 and this stamp was in use for 25 years. 240,000 copies were made but the number of existing items is still unknown. This is a classic stamp with perforations. It cost half penny in 19th century and now the price for unused specimens is 1,050 Euro. Halfpenny Yellow was reprinted 28 times and every time it was a little bit of different color. Last versions of this stamp are the cheapest ones and not so rare.

Romania

The first Romanian postage stamp was printed in 1858 and is known as Moldavian Bull's Heads. This unusual postage stamp was released in four denominations and all of them feature the head of bull. Several hundred thousands of these stamps were printed. Some of them survived through years and are available today. There are 215 first series stamps and 660 second and third series stamps. Many experts tried to evaluate Moldavian Bull's Heads stamps. They offered sums that start from 3,15 million Euro and go to 60 million Euro.

Uganda

Uganda is the country that also offers many interesting philatelic items to collectors. Its first stamps were published there in 19th century. This was the Uganda Cowries, also known as the Uganda Missionaries, issue that is quiet expensive today. The stamps were printed on a very thin paper and originally they should have been in black, but the color changed and became violet. Only one copy of Uganda Cowries exists today. It was sold for 2 million pounds last time.

Russia

The first stamp of the Russian Empire was issued in 1857 and introduced within the territory of the Russian Empire in 1858. This was an imperforate 10-kopeck stamp depicting the coat of arms of Russia, printed using typography in brown and blue.

The stamps were round in shape. This was because a rectangular stamp pasted carelessly on an envelope might catch with its angle on a post box or other letters and peel off. This, in turn, could lead to a return of letters to a sender and required to announce about such incident in newspapers. Each stamp type was printed in four colours: green, blue, black, and carmine.

The end…

Hopefully, this material provided you with a lot of new and captivating facts about the history of postage stamps. The number of old, rare, unique and stamps with errors is really great, so it is quiet difficult to write about all of them in one article. For those who want to find out more about old and rare issues, visit oldstampcollecting.com. This website will give you all necessary and useful information in brief, about the names, sizes, shapes and prices of all these rare items. oldstampcollecting.com has a convenient navigation and simple design. For anyone interested in learning more about how to begin collecting stamps, the value of a collection they’ve inherited or stamp collecting trends, this website as well as other reliable internet resources is the best place to start.

Timeline of postage stamps

• 1840 1 May - Great Britain issues the Penny Black and Two Pence Blue, the world's first postage stamps.
• 1843 1 March - Zürich issue their first stamps: Zurich 4 and Zurich 6.
• 1843 1 August - Bull's Eyes, first stamps of Brazil
• 1843 30 September - Geneva issue their first stamps: Double Geneva.
• 1847 1 July - The United States issues its first stamps.
• 1847 21 September - Mauritius issues its first stamps, the Mauritius "Post Office" stamps, or the Red Penny and Blue Penny.
• 1849 1 January - first stamps of France
• 1849 1 July - first stamps of Belgium, known as the "Epaulettes" type
• 1849 1 November - first stamps of Bavaria
• 1854 - first stamps of India
• 1855 - first stamps of South Australia
• 1856 - British Guiana 1c magenta issued