Stamps And Their History
The history of stamps goes all the way back to
the year 1516. That was when the royal mail office was opened in England;
the first official post office so to speak. At that time mail as it was
delivered was required to be paid for the the person receiving the mail.
This didn't work out as you can imagine. Think about having to pay for all
the junk mail that you receive today!
The postage stamp was introduced in 1840 and
was known as the "Penny Black". To address the issue of paying for the
mail, the sender prepaid for the mail to be sent and a colored piece of paper
was put on the mail. Thus the first postage stamp and the "Penny Black"
were born.
The idea spread quickly and the US grabbed the
idea and printed its' first stamps in 1847. These first US postal stamps were a
5 cent version with the likeness of Ben Franklin and a 10 cent model with a
picture of the father of our country, George Washington adorning the stamp.
Now it wasn't until 1855 that all postage in
the US required prepayments or stamps. Up until that time, some mail still was
delivered with the recipient required to pay to receive his or her mail.
By 1860 almost all major countries had postage
stamps. And today, stamps and postage have gone online.
There are many people who have become avid
stamp collectors over the years. And the US Post Office has helped with
many interesting and commemorative stamps printed over the years. With the
advent of the new technology and many transactions now being completed online
and printed right from a personal computer, who knows what effect this will have
on stamp collecting.
But one thing we know is this: we won't
miss any trips to the post office that we can eliminate!
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