"of British definitives bearing local overprints. Postage stamps and postal history of Great Britain Postage stamps and postal history of Great Britain surveys postal history from the United Kingdom and the postage stamps issued by that country and its various historical territories until the present day. The postal history of the United Kingdom is notable in at least two respects- first, for the introduction of postage stamps in 1840, and secondly for the establishment of an efficient postal system throughout the British Empire, laying the foundation of many national systems still in existence today. The story begins in the 12th"
"helpful: The first postage stamp was issued in Great Britain in 1840, and by the early 1860s or earlier the first postage stamp forgery - in the sense of a stamp created to fool philatelists into thinking that it is a genuine one - appeared on the market. By 1863 forgeries were so common that the book ""Forged Stamps: How to Detect Them"" was published and by 1864, forgeries were being produced of both common and scarce stamps from a wide range of issuing countries such as Austria, British Guiana, Finland, India and Spain. Jean de Sperati is among the"
"stamp collecting began at the same time that stamps were first issued, and by 1860 thousands of collectors and stamp dealers were appearing around the world as this new study and hobby spread across Europe, European colonies, the United States and other parts of the world. The first postage stamp, the Penny Black, was issued by Britain in May 1840 and pictured a young Queen Victoria. It was produced without perforations (imperforate) and consequently had to be cut from the sheet with scissors in order to be used. While unused examples of the Penny Black are quite scarce, used examples"
"among the very early or ""classic"" postage stamps of the world (the first, from Great Britain, were issued in 1840; those by the United States in 1847). The Corrientes stamps were close copies of the first issue of stamps from France, which depicted the profile head of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, and were individually crudely engraved by hand, so that each die is noticeably different, and were printed in small sheets. The first issues, from 1856 to 1860, bore the denomination in the lower panel; in 1860, the value panel was erased; the different denominations thereafter being indicated"
"of Emperor Pedro II, so his image would not be disfigured by a postmark. In 1845 some postmasters in the United States issued their own stamps, but it was not until 1847 that the first official U.S. stamps were issued: 5 and 10 cent issues depicting Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. A few other countries issued stamps in the late 1840s. The famous Mauritius ""Post Office"" stamps were issued by Mauritius in September 1847. Many others, such as India, started their use in the 1850s, and by the 1860s most countries issued stamps. Perforation of postage stamps began in January"
"63 domestic post offices in the entire empire, and service was sporadic and slow. On January 1, 1863, the Ottoman Empire issued its first adhesive postage stamps. It was the second independent country in Asia to issue adhesive stamps, preceded only by Russia in 1858, and two British colonies, Scinde District of India in 1852, India itself in 1854 and Ceylon in 1857. The Ottoman Empire's stamps came less than two years after its neighbor and former territory, Greece (independent 1832), issued its first stamps. The design consists of the tughra, the emblem of sovereignty, for the then current ruler"
"stamps were first introduced, special stamps were often issued; for instance the cantons of Switzerland issued stamps for use within a canton, and inscribed them ""Poste-Local"" or ""Orts-Post"". The Russian province of Wenden issued stamps for a local post from 1862 to 1901, while Nicaragua issued stamps for Zelaya only, due to its use of a different currency. In rural Russia Zemstvo Post handled local mail independently of the central government; some of these lasted until the 1917 revolution. Many countries have had private local posts at one time or another. Usually these operated with the acquiescence of the government,"
"Postage stamps and postal history of the Dutch East Indies This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the Netherlands East Indies, otherwise known as the Dutch East Indies, and which today is known as Indonesia. The first postage stamp in the Dutch East Indies was printed in Utrecht, the Netherlands, on 1 April 1864. The stamp showed a picture of King Willem III of the Netherlands and had a face value of ten cents. It was designed by T W Kaiser. Until 1920, stamp designs only showed pictures of the King and Queen and were"
"the postage has been paid by the sender, as was the case for letters using these stamps. Aside from the economic advantage derived from simplifying communications, the stamps and the symbol they used were a political statement against the Ottoman Empire that still exercised suzerainty over the principality. The Ottomans themselves would not issue a stamp until 1863. Indeed, they are the first stamps from Southeast Europe, with Greece issuing its first in 1861, Serbia in 1866 and Bulgaria in 1879. Earlier attempts to introduce a national coin or seal had been denied by Turkey, but the stamp, Moldavia's first"
"postage stamp. In 1680, William Dockwra, an English merchant in London, and his partner Robert Murray established the London Penny Post, a mail system that delivered letters and small parcels inside the city of London for the sum of one penny. Confirmation of paid postage was indicated by the use of a hand ""stamp"" to frank the mailed item. Though this 'stamp' was applied to the letter or parcel itself, rather than to a separate piece of paper, it is considered by many historians to be the world's first postage stamp. In 1835, the Slovene civil servant Lovrenc Košir from"
"Postage stamps and postal history of Indonesia This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Indonesia. Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, consisting of 17,508 islands. With a population of around 230 million people, it is the world's fourth most populated country. The Indonesia Post Administration was formally established on 27 September 1945, but the history of Indonesian stamps began on 1 April 1864 with the release of the first Dutch East Indies stamp. The history of Indonesian stamps can be divided into five broad periods: The first postage stamp in the Dutch"
"""Korrespondenzkarten"" has been invented in 1869 by Emanuel Herrmann. They have been printed in 8 languages. Lettercards were issued in 1886 and aerogrammes were first issued in 1952. Postage stamps and postal history of Austria This article deals with the stamps and postal history of the Austrian Empire, Cisleithania within Austria-Hungary, and the Republic of Austria. The Austrian Empire stamps were first issued on June 1, 1850: a coat of arms under the text KK Post-Stempel. The word Austria does not appear, which is logical, as the issue served in whole central Europe, more precisely in all or in part"
"were issued in the United Kingdom, but many countries began soon after. In Spain, the first stamps was implemented on 1 January 1850, with face values ranging from 6 quarters for simple letters to 10 real for heavier certificates and international items. All stamps featured an image of the monarch. The last step for the final reorganization of mail came in 1889 with the creation of the Body of Postal Workers, organized as a pyramid structure. Coinciding with the reforms of the mid-nineteenth century liberal governments launched the telegraph service. Following the French example, Spain had developed a line drawing"
"Postal card Postal cards are postal stationery with an imprinted stamp or indicium signifying the prepayment of postage. They are sold by postal authorities. On January 26, 1869, Dr. Emanuel Herrmann of Austria described the advantages of a ""Correspondenz Karte"". By October 1, 1869 the world's first postal card was produced by Austria-Hungary. They caught on quickly. By the end of 1870, Great Britain, Finland, Switzerland and Württemberg joined the countries issuing postal cards. In the United States, they were first produced in 1873. Some of the forms taken by postal cards include the regular single card which may be"
"detailed terms for the launch of the postal system and on 17 June 1849, Leopold I officially requested the new Minister of Public Works, Hippolyte Rolin, to act on the new laws. On 1 July 1849, the first postage stamps were launched, produced in two denominations with the same design. The first, a brown 10 centimes stamp, could be used to send a letter up to a distance of ; the blue 20 centimes could be used on all other ordinary national mail. The successful design was just one of a variety of options produced by Jacob Wiener. The stamps"
"early ones were produced by surcharging other stamps with overprints; at first in 1917, Italy used express stamps; regular stamps were used by Austria in 1918, Sweden used official stamps in 1920. Some other examples are the use of fiscal stamps, telegraph stamps, postage due stamps, and parcel stamps by other countries. Airmail stamps have been issued for extra services, such as registered airmail, express airmail, airmail fieldpost, and even with welfare surcharges. In the 1920s and 1930s, when many countries issued airmail stamps to publicise their new airmail routes, a new branch of stamp collecting started. This led to"
"of new permanent value stamps. Semi-postal stamps are usually denominated with two values, with a ""+"" between, the first indicating the actual rate, and the second the additional amount to be given to a charity. In a very few cases a country has had a dual currency, and the stamps may depict a value in both currencies. The second required element, at least for stamps intended to be used on international mail, is the name of the country. The first postage stamps, those of the United Kingdom, had no name. In 1874 the Universal Postal Union exempted Great Britain from"
"Penny Black The Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system. It was first issued in Great Britain on 1 May 1840, but was not valid for use until 6 May. It features a profile of Queen Victoria. In 1837, British postal rates were high, complex and anomalous. To simplify matters, Sir Rowland Hill proposed an adhesive stamp to indicate pre-payment of postage. At the time it was normal for the recipient to pay postage on delivery, charged by the sheet and on distance travelled. By contrast, the Penny Black allowed letters of"
"Postage stamps and postal history of Dominica This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Dominica, an island nation in the Caribbean Sea. Claimed by France in the 17th century, it was later awarded to Great Britain, becoming independent in 1978. Until December 31, 1939, Dominica was one of the Leeward Islands; it was then transferred to the Windward Islands. The GPO in London established a branch at Roseau in 1845, using a handstruck mark reading ""Paid at Dominica"". The first stamps used were British stamps, ca. 1858, with obliteration ""A07"". Later, colonial officials took charge"
"Postage stamps and postal history of Korea This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Korea. Before a strict isolationist country, Korea began to open up in the second half of the 19th century. Joseon issued its own first stamps on 18 November 1884 when the first postal service was created. While five values were printed - 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 mon, only the 5m and 10m values were issued, and even these saw little use, as the post office was burned down during a revolt in December 1884. The next series of stamps"
"Postage stamps and postal history of Nepal This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Nepal. Nepal has issued postal stamps since 1881. The first Nepalese were issued in April 1881 as a set of three which were valued at one anna, two annas and four annas inscribed as the Kingdom of Gorkha in Nepali script.. These were initially perforated and printed on European made paper. Within a few months they were released imperforate. In 1886 they were reprinted on hand made Nepalese paper. Numerous printings of these first three values on the local paper were"
"Postage stamps and postal history of Mauritius Mauritius, a small island in the southwest Indian Ocean, is of towering importance in the world of philately for a number of reasons. Its first two postage stamps issued in 1847, called the ""Post Office"" stamps, are of legendary rarity and value. They were the first stamps issued in any part of the British Empire outside of Great Britain. The unique cover bearing both “Post Office” stamps has been called ""la pièce de résistance de toute la philatélie"" or ""the greatest item in all philately"". The cover was sold at auction, in Zurich,"
"Postage stamps and postal history of Mauritius Mauritius, a small island in the southwest Indian Ocean, is of towering importance in the world of philately for a number of reasons. Its first two postage stamps issued in 1847, called the ""Post Office"" stamps, are of legendary rarity and value. They were the first stamps issued in any part of the British Empire outside of Great Britain. The unique cover bearing both “Post Office” stamps has been called ""la pièce de résistance de toute la philatélie"" or ""the greatest item in all philately"". The cover was sold at auction, in Zurich,"
"Postage stamps and postal history of Thailand This is a survey of the postal history and postage stamps of Thailand. Before Siam issued its first stamp, there was a limited mail service, mainly for the royal family. Domestic mail travelled by messengers while international mail travelled by steamboat to post offices in nearby countries, such as the Straits Settlements. The earliest recorded mail from Bangkok dates back only to 1836 when American missionary Dan Beach Bradley sent a letter to his father in a stampless cover. The British Consular Post Office in Bangkok was established by Great Britain in 1858"
"separating stamps from a sheet proved an inconvenience for postal clerks and businesses, both dealing with large numbers of individual stamps on a daily basis. By 1850, methods such as rouletting wheels were being devised in efforts of making stamp separation more convenient, and less time consuming. The United Kingdom was the first country to issue postage stamps with perforations. The first machine specifically designed to perforate sheets of postage stamps was invented in London by Henry Archer, an Irish landowner and railroad man from Dublin, Ireland. The 1850 Penny Red was the first stamp to be perforated during trial"
"was first devised in the Netherlands in 1624 after a public competition to find a new form of tax. Stamp acts have been enforced in many countries, including Australia, Canada, People's Republic of China, Ireland, India, Malaysia, Israel, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. The taxes raised under a stamp act are called stamp duty. Stamps acts were enacted in various Australian states in 1878, 1882, 1886, 1890, and 1894, with amendments from 1892 to 1907. According to these acts, stamps were required on many types of business transactions: negotiable instruments, promissory notes, bills of lading, and"
"short strokes or dots in the originals. First stamp of the Russian Empire The first stamp of the Russian Empire was a postage stamp issued in 1857 and introduced within the territory of the Russian Empire in 1858. It was an imperforate 10-kopeck stamp depicting the coat of arms of Russia, and printed using typography in brown and blue. In 1851, a head of post rail transportation Alexey Charukovsky was sent abroad to study the experience of using postage stamps. After visiting England, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, and Germany and gathering a lot of information, he returned to"
"Postage stamps and postal history of the Netherlands This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the Netherlands. The postal region of the Netherlands is located in North-West Europe and comprises the whole territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Europe and until 2010 the full territory of the country the Netherlands. Four other postal regions exist in the kingdom: for Aruba, the Caribbean Netherlands (Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba), Curaçao and Sint Maarten. The first stamps of the Netherlands were issued in 1852 and depicted King William III. During the Second World War the"
"First stamp of the Russian Empire The first stamp of the Russian Empire was a postage stamp issued in 1857 and introduced within the territory of the Russian Empire in 1858. It was an imperforate 10-kopeck stamp depicting the coat of arms of Russia, and printed using typography in brown and blue. In 1851, a head of post rail transportation Alexey Charukovsky was sent abroad to study the experience of using postage stamps. After visiting England, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, and Germany and gathering a lot of information, he returned to Russia in 1852. However, the Crimean War"
"was a shortage of stamps to meet the new rates. Provisional six-anna stamps were improvised by cutting the top and bottom from a current foreign-bill revenue stamp and overprinting ""Postage"". India was the first country in the Commonwealth to issue airmail stamps. India attained independence on 15 August 1947. Thereafter, the Indian Posts and Telegraph Department embarked on a broad-based policy for the issuance of stamps. The first new stamp was issued by independent India on 21 November 1947. It depicts the Indian flag with the patriots' slogan, ""Jai Hind"" (""long live India""), at the top right-hand corner. The stamp"
"Black design features in the innovations section of the new British passport in 2015. Also in 2015, the search engine Google marked the 175th anniversary of the postage stamp with a Google doodle of the Penny Black. Penny Black The Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system. It was first issued in Great Britain on 1 May 1840, but was not valid for use until 6 May. It features a profile of Queen Victoria. In 1837, British postal rates were high, complex and anomalous. To simplify matters, Sir Rowland Hill proposed an"
"were issued by New South Wales in 1888 to mark its 100th anniversary; the six types all include the inscription """". Commemoratives followed in 1891 for Hong Kong and Romania. In 1892 and 1893 a half-dozen nations of America and Spain issued commemorative stamps for the 400th anniversary of the West's discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. The appearance of commemorative postage stamps caused a backlash among some stamp collectors, in the early years of stamp collecting who balked at the prospect of laying out ever-larger sums to acquire the stamps of the world, so they formed the Society for"
"Great Britain commemorative stamps 1990–99 Commemorative stamps, postage stamps issued to honor or commemorate a place, event or person, have been released by Great Britain since 1924. Several sets were released during the decade of the 1990s. Postage stamps were first used in Great Britain on 6 May 1840, with the introduction of the world's first adhesive postage stamp, the Penny Black. Up until 1924, all British stamps depicted only the portrait of the reigning monarch, with the exception of the 'High Value' stamps, the so-called ""Sea Horses"" design issued in 1913, which were twice the size of normal stamps"