1 May /14

Penny Black or stamps for 175 years

175 years ago today, on 1 May 1840 the world’s first adhesive postage stamp was issued in Great Britain, the Penny Black. This took up the idea of the sender paying for the letter, rather than payment on delivery. The stamp was used for only 10 months with a print run of almost 70 million and discontinued for typical start-up problems – the red cancellation on a black stamp was difficult to see and easy to remove, leading to many stamps being reused. The solution came quickly with the Penny Red which came in 1841.

It did not take very long for the idea to catch on. In 1843 there were the first stamps in Switzerland and Brazil, while the first stamps in the United States were issued in 1845. With such popularity and worldwide fame, the first stamp collections started. The world’s first journal came out the Stamp Collector’s Magazine. It included extensive descriptions about what was happening in the world of stamps the world over, and introduced to English such words as stamp collection, postcard, reply paid and stamp dealer.

In 25 years, maybe there will be no more stamps. Fewer letters are being written. In the United States only 160 billion letters are being sent a year (50% of which are advertising mail) while a huge 840 billion email marketing letters were sent in the same period. Just count how many letters you received in the last week and compare it to the number of emails. Let us celebrate stamps today when we can still remember what they are.