Postage stamp
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Because governments issue stamps in different denominations and often discontinue or introduce new lines, stamps are prized by collectors for their beauty and historical significance.[1] Since the 1840s, postage stamps have been used to enable the delivery of mail.[2] Philately is the term for the examination of postage stamps and their usage.[3]
Quick Facts
- Inventor
- Sir Rowland Hill
- First stamp
- Penny Black
- First issuing country
- United Kingdom
- Notable feature
- United Kingdom remains the only country to omit its name on stamps
Facts from the source article.
Key facts and history
Before the introduction of postage stamps, mail in the United Kingdom was paid for by the recipient, a system that caused unrecoverable costs when recipients refused to pay.[4] The postage stamp resolved this issue by requiring the sender to pay, and it also allowed room for beauty in design.[4] Because the earliest stamps did not require the issuing country to be named, they were issued without any country name.[1][5] In the United Kingdom, the number of letters mailed was 76 million before 1839, and by 1850 that figure had grown to 350 million.[6]
The perforation of stamps started in January 1854, and the first stamps with official perforations were released the following month, in February 1854.[7]
What the cited sources add
The Harford article states that cheap postage brought modern problems such as junk mail, scams, and a growing demand for immediate response.[8]
References
- Wikipedia, "Postage stamp" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The World's First Postage Stamps", National Postal Museum; Harford, "The Penny Post revolutionary who transformed how we send letters", 13 August 2019 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Postage stamp" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "British Postal Museum, The Penny Post and After"; National Postal Museum: World’s First Postage Stamps; "Before the Penny Black, by Ken Lawrence, 1995" (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Postage stamp" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Life and Times of a Stamp Collector" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Postage stamp" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Cost of Stamps" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Postage stamp" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Garfield, "The Error World: An Affair with Stamps", Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009, p. 118; O'Donnell, "Internet for Scientists", CRC Press, 1997, p. 19 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Postage stamp" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The British Postal Museum" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Postage stamp" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Why has a Postage Stamp a Perforated Edge? – A.M. Encyclopedia – Volume Two – page 1415 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Harford, "The Penny Post revolutionary who transformed how we send letters", 13 August 2019. facts only, no text reused. bbc.co.uk
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Postage stamp (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Postage stamp (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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