"prepaying. From when the first postage stamps were used, postmarks were applied to prevent the stamps being used again. The first stamp, the ""Penny black"", became available for purchase 1 May 1840, to be valid as of 6 May 1840. Two days later, 8 May 1840, the Two penny blue was introduced. The Penny black was sufficient for a letter less than half an ounce to be sent anywhere within the UK. Both stamps included an engraving of the young Queen Victoria, without perforations, as the first stamps were separated from their sheets by cutting them with scissors. The first"
"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"
"Later that year, Daniel Webster rose in the U.S. Senate to recommend that the recent English postal reforms—standardized rates and the use of postage stamps—be adopted in America. It would be private enterprise, however, that brought stamps to the U. S. On February 1, 1842 a new carrier service called ""City Despatch Post"" began operations in New York City, introducing the first adhesive postage stamp ever produced in the western hemisphere, which it required its clients to use for all mail. This stamp was a 3¢ issue bearing a rather amateurish drawing of George Washington, printed from line engraved plates"
"envelopes are a mainstay of the direct mail industry. In May 1840 the World's first adhesive postage stamps were distributed. With an elegant engraving of the young Queen Victoria (whose 21st birthday was celebrated that month), the Penny Black was an instant success. Refinements, such as perforations to ease the separating of the stamps, were instituted with later issues. Rowland Hill continued at the Post Office until the Conservative Party won the 1841 General Election. Sir Robert Peel returned to office on 30 August 1841 and served until 29 June 1846. Amid rancorous controversy, Hill was dismissed in July 1842."
"Allen. The records were subsequently acquired by the Royal Philatelic Society London where Percy de Worms organised them for publication and display. Perkins Bacon Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co was a printer of books, bank notes and postage stamps, most notable for printing the Penny Black, the world's first adhesive postage stamps, in 1840. Jacob Perkins invented and sold ""soft steel"" plates for engraving that were hardened after being engraved. The plates were between one and three inches thick, and some weighed fifty pounds. He produced some currency in the USA, and with engraver Gideon Fairman produced the first books"
"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"
"British embossed postage stamps The adhesive embossed postage stamps of the United Kingdom, issued during the reign of Queen Victoria between 1847 and 1854 exhibit four features which are unique to this issue: Three values of the octagonal stamps were introduced to cover higher foreign and registered postal charges on the following dates: 1 Shilling (green) - 11 September 1847, 10d (brown) - 6 November 1848, 6d (mauve/lilac/purple) - 1 March 1854 The 1 shilling was the first British postage stamp to bear a value above 2d. The dies used for this type of printing have the embossed, (raised), portions"
"in use at the beginning of the 19th century as a novelty wrapper for invitations and letters among the proportion of the population that had the time to sit and cut them out and were affluent enough not to bother about the waste offcuts. Their use first became widespread in the UK when the British government took monopoly control of postal services and tasked Rowland Hill with its introduction. The new service was launched in May 1840 with a postage-paid machine-printed illustrated (or pictorial) version of the wrapper and the much-celebrated first adhesive postage stamp: the Penny Black- for the"
"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"
"1840 Act which introduced the Uniform Penny Post. In his proposal, Hill also called for official pre-printed envelopes and adhesive postage stamps as alternative ways of getting the sender to pay for postage, at a time when prepayment was optional. Previously, postage had depended on distance and the number of sheets of paper; now, one penny would assure delivery of an envelope and the letter it enclosed anywhere in the country provided together they satisfied the weight condition. This was a lower rate than before, when the cost of postage was usually more than 4d (four pence). The reform did"
"credited with the invention of the postage stamp, as a way to reverse the steady financial losses of the Post Office. Hill convinced Parliament to adopt the Uniform Fourpenny Post whereby a flat 4d per half ounce rate (equivalent to 10s 8d per pound for heavier items) was charged regardless of distance. December 1839-letters could arrive at any address in the United Kingdom: The rate went into effect on 5 December 1839 but only lasted for 36 days. This was immediately successful, and on 10 January 1840 the Uniform Penny Post started, charging only 1d for prepaid letters and 2d"
"Great Britain commemorative stamps 1970–79 Commemorative stamps, postage stamps issued to honor or commemorate a place, event or person, have been released by Great Britain since 1970. Several sets were released during the decade of the 1970s. Postage Stamps were first used in Great Britain on 6 May 1840, with the introduction of the world's first Adhesive Postage Stamp known as the Penny Black. Until 1924, all British stamps depicted only the portrait of the reigning Monarch, with the exception of the 'High Value' stamps (also known as the ""Sea Horses"" design) issued in 1913, which were twice the size"
"United States postmasters provisional stamps In the Act of March 3, 1845, the United States Congress standardized postal rates throughout the nation at 5¢ for a normal-weight letter transported up to 300 miles and 10¢ for a letter transported between 300 and 3,000 miles, with these rates to take effect on July 1, 1845. In Great Britain, such uniformity had been adopted as a necessary prelude to the issue, in May 1840, of the world's first adhesive postage stamps, to be used for the prepayment of mail. (Before this standardization, the many different postal rates in different jurisdictions had made"
"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"
"Self-adhesive stamp A self-adhesive stamp is a postage stamp with a pressure-sensitive adhesive that does not require moistening in order to adhere to paper. They are usually issued on a removable backing paper. They were first issued by such tropical climates as Sierra Leone in February 1964 and Tonga in April 1969 in an attempt to avoid the tendency of traditional water-activated stamps to stick together in humid conditions. They also made die cutting into fanciful and unique shapes easier. The United States Postal Service's first foray into self-adhesive stamps was in 1974 with the 10-cent dove weathervane, produced by"
"in German and Swiss factories. In 1876, the first US patent (number 183,024) was issued to the Ross brothers for the production of casein glue. The first US postage stamps used starch-based adhesives when issued in 1847. The first US patent (number 61,991) on dextrin (a starch derivative) adhesive was issued in 1867. Natural rubber was first used as material for adhesives starting in 1830. In 1862, a British patent (number 3288) was issued for the plating of metal with brass by electrodeposition to obtain a stronger bond to rubber. The development of the automobile and the need for rubber"
"not already paid for by the sender. Postal delivery in the United States was a matter of haphazard local organization until after the Revolutionary War, when eventually a national postal system was established. Stampless letters, paid for by the receiver, and private postal systems, were gradually phased out after 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, with the use of stamps made mandatory in 1855. The issue and use of adhesive postage stamps continued during the 19th century primarily for first class"
"used cards. The US has never issued any letter cards. Before 1845 correspondence was not enclosed in an envelope. Letters were folded, sealed, addressed and postmarked on the outside. This continued even after adhesive postage stamps were introduced. The popularity of folded letters led postal authorities to introduce stamped letter sheets. These became available in the U.S. in 1861, but the first official postal stationery were the 1838 embossed letter sheets of New South Wales. These were followed by the Mulready stationery that was issued by Great Britain at the same time as the Penny Black in 1840. Since then,"
"Windsor sold it to the U.S. Government and the post became known as the ""United States City Despatch Post."" The government began operation of this local post on August 16, 1842. After the sale Windsor and his wife returned to London. The 3-cent stamp issued City Despatch Post in 1842 was the first postage stamp issued in the Western Hemisphere. It followed Great Britain’s Penny Black and Two-Pence Blue by a mere 21 months and predated the U.S. 1845 Postmaster’s Provisionals, and 1847 General Issues by three and five years, respectively. The stamps were engraved on steel by Rawdon, Wright"
"Perkins Bacon Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co was a printer of books, bank notes and postage stamps, most notable for printing the Penny Black, the world's first adhesive postage stamps, in 1840. Jacob Perkins invented and sold ""soft steel"" plates for engraving that were hardened after being engraved. The plates were between one and three inches thick, and some weighed fifty pounds. He produced some currency in the USA, and with engraver Gideon Fairman produced the first books to be engraved on steel in the USA. Several eight-page books ""Perkins and Fairman's Running Hand"". They produced currency for Massachusetts, and"
"Postage Act 1839 The Postage Act 1839 (c.52) was an act of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that came into effect on 17 August 1839 to regulate the postage rates of Great Britain until 5 October 1840 and led to several postal reforms, including the introduction of the Uniform Penny Post and the world's first postage stamps. This was the first act in the reforms of the General Post Office that took place under the auspices of Rowland Hill. Its main objective was that within a year the cost of postage should be reduced to one penny"
"when the letter was sent. It was later decided that an adhesive label should be used to prevent forgeries and miss-use of the postal service and the Penny Black stamp was born. The stamp was pre-paid and covered a letter up to 14 grams in weight. It was officially released for sale on the 6th May 1840 however, several post offices that received the stamps prior to the 6th released the stamps early. The City of Bath is known for releasing the stamps on the 2 May 1840. Here began the very first First Day Covers. Event covers, also known"
"supplied with India's first lithographed adhesives, which became available in Aden just as they were issued on the Indian mainland. Until 1857, the only Aden post office was in the Crater, later known as Aden Cantonment or Aden Camp. Mails were carried by camel to and from Steamer Point. In 1857 a Postmaster was appointed and the main post office was moved to new quarters at Steamer Point. Covers from Aden with the Indian lithographed stamps are rare. Although these stamps did not have an Aden overprint, many of them may be recognised (even off cover) from the frequent use"
"they felt cheated that the agreed reduction to the uniform rate of 1d had not taken place. This resulted in the abolition of the Fourpenny Post and the debut of the Uniform Penny Post on 10 January 1840 when 1d was charged for pre-paid one ounce letters. This was followed by the issuance of labels to prepay postage in May 1840: the Penny Black and Two Penny Blue stamps. From 5 December 1839 until 9 January 1840 a uniform charge of 4d was levied for pre-paid letters up to half an ounce in weight instead of postage being calculated by"
"by a local U. S. Postmaster, its newness proved no barrier to its acceptance by the public; indeed, copies have been found on letters dated July 15. New Yorkers were already familiar with stamps previously offered by private mail carriers. Indeed, they were quite accustomed to seeing stamps that bore George Washington's image. In February 1842, a New York carrier, the City Despatch Post, had printed a rather crude 3¢ Washington issue for use by its customers (the first adhesive postage stamp produced in the Western hemisphere); and the service offered a second version of that Washington stamp with modified"
"20,933 were issued. Notable among his medallic work are the obverse designs for the prize, juror and other medals for The Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851, the year of his death in Birmingham. Wyon's City Medal was the model for the head on the line-engraved postage stamps of 1840–79, beginning with the Penny Black, the world's first adhesive postage stamp, the embossed stamps of 1847–54 and the postal stationery 1841–1901. The primary die used for the embossed issue was engraved by Wyon; the 1s and 10d stamps have the initials ""ww"" along with the die number at the"
"Edward J. Nankivell Edward James Nankivell (1848–1909) was a respected member of the Institute of Journalists in London and an avid early stamp collector. Stamp collecting was a relatively new hobby (the first postage stamp in the world, the Penny Black, was issued by Britain in 1840) and not taken seriously at all by the people, who considered it only something to amuse children. Nankivell was upset by the lack of respect the public had for his beloved hobby and he wrote ""Stamp Collecting as a Pastime"" as a passionate plea for the acceptance of stamp collecting as a serious"
"applied so that it may travel under the registered mail service. The envelope form may be called a stamped envelope or, alternatively, a postal stationery envelope (PSE for short). In August 1852 an act of the U.S. Congress authorized the Postmaster General to provide ""suitable letter envelopes with such watermarks or other guards against counterfeits... with the addition of the value or denomination of the postage stamps so printed or impressed thereon..."". The first result was the 1853 Nesbitt issues of stamped envelopes, named after the contractor who produced them for the government. Considering the different envelope sizes, knives, colors,"
"the Indian Post Office was established in 1837, Asia's first adhesive stamp, the Scinde Dawk, was introduced in 1852 by Sir Bartle Frere, the British East India Company's administrator of the province of Sind. The Indian postal system developed into an extensive, dependable and robust network providing connectivity to almost all parts of India, Burma, the Straits Settlements and other areas controlled by the British East India Company (EIC). Based on the model postal system introduced in England by the reformer, Rowland Hill, efficient postal services were provided at a low cost and enabled the smooth commercial, military and administrative"
"Adhesive label An adhesive label or sticky label is a small piece of paper designed to be affixed to another larger piece of paper or other object, typically by the action of a layer of adhesive on the back of the label. The most familiar type of label is the postage stamp, which was developed in the mid-19th century. In 1935 R. Stanton Avery invented a machine to make self-adhesive labels. The concept has since been extended into a variety of areas: Almost every imaginable type of paper and adhesive has been used at some point; see postage stamp paper"
"Penny Post component of the British postal reforms of 1840 by Sir Rowland Hill and the invention of the postage stamp, was a lozenge-shaped lettersheet known as a Mulready. If desired, a separate letter could be enclosed with postage remaining at one penny provided the combined weight did not exceed half an ounce (14 grams). This was a legacy of the previous system of calculating postage, which partly depended on the number of sheets of paper used. During the U.S. Civil War those in the Confederate States Army occasionally used envelopes made from wallpaper, due to financial hardship. A ""return"
"much needed reforms in the current postal system. On 10 January 1840, the Uniform Penny Post was established throughout the UK, facilitating the safe, speedy and cheap conveyance of letters, and from 6 May could be prepaid with the first postage stamp, known as the Penny Black. Elihu Burritt proposed that a fixed rate of one penny be established for all mail throughout the entire British Empire as a means of facilitating international interaction and international unity. This was known as the Ocean Penny Post. On Christmas Day, 1898, the Imperial Penny Post extended the rate throughout the British Empire"
"first unambiguous description of a modern adhesive postage stamp (though the term ""postage stamp"" originated at later date). Shortly afterward, Hill's revision of the booklet, dated 22 February 1837, containing some 28,000 words, incorporating the supplement given to the Chancellor and statements he made to the Commission, was published and made available to the general public. Hansard records that on 15 December 1837, 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"