Today we lick or peel a stamp, stick it on an envelope and drop it in the mailbox without a second thought. But the postage stamp is a surprisingly recent invention. For most of history, there was no such thing.
The first one arrived in 1840 because Britain overhauled its confusing, expensive postal system. Reformer Rowland Hill proposed that senders prepay a single, flat rate and prove it with a small adhesive label. The result was the Penny Black, the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system, issued on May 1, 1840.
When the Receiver Paid the Bill
In the 1830s, British postal rates were high, complicated and full of oddities. It was normal for the person receiving a letter to pay the postage when it was delivered. The price depended on how far the letter had traveled and how many sheets of paper it contained.
Reformers argued that cheap, simple mail would help business and even bring in more money for the government. In 1837, Rowland Hill presented his plan to a government inquiry and published a famous pamphlet on post office reform later that year.
One Penny, Any Distance
Hill's idea was refreshingly simple. Instead of charging by distance, a letter weighing up to half an ounce would cost one penny to send anywhere in the country. The sender would pay in advance, and a stamp would show the postage had been paid.
Hill was hired to run the new system. A public design competition drew around 2,600 entries, but none were judged suitable. So a rough design endorsed by Hill was used instead, featuring a profile of a 21-year-old Queen Victoria. Hill believed a familiar face would be hard to forge.
The Famous Penny Black
The Penny Black was printed in black ink, as its name suggests, in sheets of 240 stamps. A full sheet cost one pound. Letters in the lower corners showed each stamp's position on the sheet, and a blue two-penny stamp for heavier letters followed on May 8. Behind the queen's portrait is a background of finely engraved swirling lines.
Officially, the stamps couldn't be used until May 6, 1840. But some post offices, such as those in Bath, sold them early. A single envelope is known postmarked May 1, 1840, the very first day.
Why It Lasted Less Than a Year
The Penny Black had a flaw. Used stamps were canceled with red ink, which was hard to see on a black stamp and easy to wash off. That made it possible for people to reuse stamps.
In February 1841, Britain switched to the Penny Red and began canceling stamps with black ink, which was harder to remove. Even then, some people pieced together the unmarked halves of two used stamps to make a new one, so more safeguards were added later.
The idea spread quickly. The U.S. Post Office issued its first adhesive stamps on July 1, 1847, in five- and ten-cent values. Before that, American mail was often paid for by the person receiving it, too. In the earliest days, ship captains even listed in local newspapers the names of people who had mail waiting to be collected and paid for. So the next time you stick a stamp on a birthday card, remember that it all started with a flat penny fee and a portrait of a young queen.
