Information on Stamps

Invention

• The first postage stamps were introduced into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1840 by way of Sir Rowland Hill. Hill began his work in postal reform in 1835 and published a pamphlet entitled "Post Office Reform its Importance and Practicability" in 1837 that included a rudimentary postage stamp design.

Design

• While the most common design for a stamp is a thin sheet of paper in the shape of a rectangle, there is no set standard regarding material and shape. For instance, stamps have been produced with circular designs as well as pentagonal. Certain countries have issued stamps in the shapes of fruit and America has even created a stamp out of plastic.

Study of Stamps

• The art of studying stamps and any related information regarding them is referred to as philately. The word was originally invented by George Herpin in 1864. While philatelists study the history of stamps, they are not the same as stamp collectors. You can be an avid philatelist and not own a single stamp.

Stamp Collecting

• According to the American Philately Society, stamp collecting was at its most popular between 1840 and 1940. In the years following 1840, stamp designs began to vary. Wealthy investors and collectors took a keen interest in stamp collecting as a business. The most rare and expensive stamps that serious collectors seek are called "error stamps." These stamps feature rare production errors which make them entirely unique. An example of a well known error stamp would be "The Inverted Jenny," a 1918 issue that features an airplane printed upside-down.

Penny Black

• The first postage stamp ever administered by a public postal service was called the Penny Black. This was the first kind of stamp utilized by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1840. The stamp was a small, adhesive square paper sheet. It featured a black color scheme with a woman's head printed on it and was worth one penny.