Ward's Book of Days.
Pages of interesting anniversaries.
What happened on this day in history.
MAY 6th
On this day in history in 1840, the first postage stamps came into use.
Stamps were the brainchild of Rowland Hill, the Postmaster General who wanted a quick and efficient method of using prepaid postage. His idea was for postage to be paid in advance; previously it had to be paid by the recipient, and to create a uniform tariff for postal service. The first stamps, featuring Queen Victoria in profile, were the Penny Black, for regular postage and the Two-penny Blue for heavier items.
Sadly the scheme did not function favourably. These early stamps had no perforations so they had to be separated with a knife or scissors. The Penny Black was so dark that the cancellation mark did not show up and dishonest individuals could reuse the stamps. The scheme nearly came to an abrupt end but Hill had the Penny Black changed to the Penny Red and later a machine was introduced to insert perforations in the stamp sheets.
The stamp scheme became a great success and was copied by other countries. Now every country has its own postage stamps and there is the Universal Postal Union to coordinate international mailings. All other countries have their names on their postage stamps but as Great Britain invented the idea, we simply have the Sovereign in profile, which is sufficient to indicate the country of issue.
Recommended reading.
James, Alan. Sir
Rowland Hill and The First Post Office.
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