British stamps still carry no country name, a privilege of going first
Every nation's postage stamps must name the issuing country, with one exception: the United Kingdom. Britain launched the idea on 1 May 1840 with the Penny Black, bearing Queen Victoria's profile. Within twenty years stamps were in use in 90 countries around the world.
Several people have been credited with the invention, because proof of paid postage took many forms. In April 1680 William Dockwra, a London customs searcher, and his partner Robert Murray set up the London Penny Post, carrying letters and parcels up to a pound in weight across the city for a penny. A hand stamp marked each item as paid, and many historians count that mark as the first postage stamp, even though it went straight onto the letter. In 1835 Lovrenc Košir, a civil servant in Ljubljana, proposed paper wafers so thin they could not be peeled off and reused; officials studied the idea but never adopted it.
In 1836 the MP Robert Wallace handed Rowland Hill what Hill called half a hundredweight of postal documents. Hill's resulting pamphlet, Post Office Reform, went privately to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in January 1837. Working at the time for the South Australian Colonization Commission, Hill borrowed the colonial idea of uniform land prices and argued for one flat postage rate. Before a commission of inquiry that February, he described a small piece of paper just big enough for a stamp, coated on the back with a sticky wash, the first clear account of a modern adhesive stamp. A public version of about 28,000 words followed.
For the Penny Black, Henry Corbould drew the queen from a medal by William Wyon, and the security printers Perkins, Bacon & Petch produced it. Switzerland and Brazil adopted stamps within three years, and the United States soon after.
A stamp is gummed or self-adhesive and cancelled with a postmark so it cannot be used twice. Countries issue denominations in uneven quantities and retire designs, so collectors prize them for rarity, beauty and history, a study called philately. Because collectors often never use what they buy, stamp sales can turn a profit for postal services.
Source: Postage stamp
