Before the invention of the postage stamp, letters were usually paid for by the person receiving them. If the sender did prepay the postage, the letter would be marked "Paid " by hand or by a hand stamp. Sometimes, wrappers preprinted with a stamp were used. Postage rates were high, and varied depending on how far a letter had to travel and how many sheets the letter contained.
A retired English schoolteacher, Rowland Hill (1795-1879), published a pamphlet in 1837 titled Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability, in which he demonstrated that the cost of delivering a letter in Great Britain had less to do with the distance sent than with the amount of time spent for handling and calculating and collecting postage. He proposed an inexpensive, universal postage rate based on the weight of the letter. Hill also suggested that postage should be prepaid by the use of envelopes stamped as such, and "by using a bit of paper... covered at the back with a glutinous wash, which the bringer might, by the application of a little moisture, attach to the back of the letter." An Irishman, James Chalmers of Dundee, Scotland, had in fact produced some experimental adhesive-backed postage stamps in 1834.
The British government soon adopted Hill's proposals. Penny post became effective in January 1840. The first postage stamps went on sale on May 1, 1840, printed by the American firm Perkins, Bacon, and Petch, using a process invented by Jacob Perkins (1766-1849). The one-pence stamp carried a portrait of young Queen Victoria (1819-1901) on a black background; it became popularly known as the Penny Black. Its mate was called the Twopenny Blue. Pre-stamped envelopes also went on sale, but the individual postage stamp was far more popular.
The use of prepaid postage stamps rapidly spread worldwide. Brazil and several Swiss cantons issued postage stamps in 1843, followed by Mauritius and Trinidad in 1847. Privately issued postage stamps appeared in the United States in 1842, and the federal government issued the first official United States postage stamps on July 1, 1847--a five-cent stamp bearing a portrait of Benjamin Franklin (the first Postmaster General of the United States) and a ten-cent stamp featuring George Washington.
The first postage stamps were not scored for easy separating; purchasers had to cut them apart with scissors or a knife. The Englishman Henry Archer invented a machine that, once perfected, produced the first perforated stamps in 1854. Today, postage stamps are sold, with an adhesive already attached so there is no need to provide moisture, one simply peels the stamp from its paper backing and attaches it to the envelope.People collect early postage stamps as well as special-issue commemorative stamps. Business that have vast amounts of correspondence usually acquire special permits for postage meters that permit them to stamp and cancel their mail
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