Evolution of Stamps

Persians, in the time of Emperor Darius introduced the system of carrying written messages. Darius placed couriers’ at all important places of his empire and assured that even in adverse conditions the messages should reach their destination as early as possible. Further developments were carried out by Caesar Augustus by taking the services of men along with horses and carriages in the first half of the sixth century. This system was called as “Cursus Publicus”.

It was 1505 when the first postal service for the public was commenced in Austria by the Thurn and Taxis families. This was a private venture and offered the transfer of letters and parcels to every part of Europe. In 1960, William Dockwra, a London based businessman started a similar service known as Penny Post. It was a huge success and thus the government took it over.

It is surprising to note that none of these services made use of a proper postal stamp. Penny Post though used a handstamp but the very first, adhesive stamp was introduced to the world onMay 6, 1840. This stamp was known as Penny Black and was issued by the British post office. This small bit of paper with a picture of the queen started the trend of postal stamps and stamp collection.

There is an interesting incident leading to the use of postal stamps. Sir Rowland Hill was on a vacation in some village in Scotland. It was the time when one has to pay for receiving a latter. He saw a postman asking a girl to pay for the letter and the girl refused to pay and take the letter. Sir Rowland Hill paid on behalf of the girl but on the contrary, the girl was annoyed and told that it was from her boyfriend and the message he actually wanted to convey to the girl was written in code words outside the letter. Sir Hill decided to propose the reformation of the entire postal system which was opposed by the parliament.

Sir Rowland Hill proposed the idea of employing a flat rate for a letter followed by extra charges for extra weight. He, along with his brother, Edwin created few designs carrying the motif of Queen Victoria. This was accepted andPenny Black and Two Penny Blue stamps were made available on May 1, 1840 and made valid onMay 6. London post office has his statue with the inscription, “He created uniform postage”. Sir Rowland Hill was called as the Father of the Adhesive Postage Stamp.