POSTAGE
STAMPS
For all See also:practical purposes the See also:history of postage stamps begins in the See also:United See also:Kingdom
.
A See also:post-paid envelope was in See also:common use in See also:Paris in the See also:year 1653
.
Stamped postal See also:letter-See also:paper (carta postale bollata) was issued to the public by the See also:government of the Sardinian States in See also:November 1818, and stamped postal envelopes were issued by the same government from 182o until 1836.1 Stamped wrappers for See also:newspapers were made experimentally in See also:London by See also:Charles See also:Whiting, under the name of " go-frees," in 183o
.
Four years later (See also:June 1834), and in See also:ignorance of what Whiting had already done, Charles See also:Knight, the well-known publisher, in a letter addressed to See also:Lord Althorp, then See also:chancellor of the See also:exchequer, recommended similar wrappers for See also:adoption
.
From this See also:suggestion apparently See also:Rowland See also:- HILL
- HILL (0. Eng. hyll; cf. Low Ger. hull, Mid. Dutch hul, allied to Lat. celsus, high, collis, hill, &c.)
- HILL, A
- HILL, AARON (1685-175o)
- HILL, AMBROSE POWELL
- HILL, DANIEL HARVEY (1821-1889)
- HILL, DAVID BENNETT (1843–1910)
- HILL, GEORGE BIRKBECK NORMAN (1835-1903)
- HILL, JAMES J
- HILL, JOHN (c. 1716-1775)
- HILL, MATTHEW DAVENPORT (1792-1872)
- HILL, OCTAVIA (1838– )
- HILL, ROWLAND (1744–1833)
- HILL, SIR ROWLAND (1795-1879)
Hill, who is justly regarded as the originator of postage stamps, got his See also:idea
.
Meanwhile, however, the adhesive See also:stamp was made experimentally by See also:- JAMES
- JAMES (Gr. 'IlrKw,l3or, the Heb. Ya`akob or Jacob)
- JAMES (JAMES FRANCIS EDWARD STUART) (1688-1766)
- JAMES, 2ND EARL OF DOUGLAS AND MAR(c. 1358–1388)
- JAMES, DAVID (1839-1893)
- JAMES, EPISTLE OF
- JAMES, GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFOP
- JAMES, HENRY (1843— )
- JAMES, JOHN ANGELL (1785-1859)
- JAMES, THOMAS (c. 1573–1629)
- JAMES, WILLIAM (1842–1910)
- JAMES, WILLIAM (d. 1827)
James See also:Chalmers in his See also:printing-See also:- OFFICE (from Lat. officium, " duty," " service," a shortened form of opifacium, from facere, " to do," and either the stem of opes, " wealth," " aid," or opus, " work ")
office at See also:Dundee in See also:August 1834.2 These experimental stamps were printed from See also:ordinary type, and were made adhesive by a See also:wash of See also:- GUM (Fr. gomme, Lat. gommi, Gr. Kµµ1, possibly a Coptic word; distinguish " gum," the fleshy covering of the base of a tooth, in O. Eng. gbma, palate, cf. Ger. Gaumen, roof of the mouth; the ultimate origin is probably the root gha, to open wide, seen in
gum
.
Chalmers had already won See also:local distinction by his successful efforts in 1822, for the See also:acceleration of the Scottish mails from London
.
Those efforts resulted in a saving of See also:forty-eight See also:hours on the See also:double See also:mail See also:journey, and were highly appreciated in See also:Scotland
.
Rowland Hill brought the adhesive stamp under the See also:notice of the commissioners of post office inquiry on the 13th of See also:February 1837
.
Chalmers made no public mention of his stamp of 1834 until November 1837
.
Rowland Hill's pamphlet led to the See also:appointment of a See also:committee of the See also:House of See also:Commons on the 22nd of November 1837, " to inquire into the rates and modes of charging postage, with a view to such a reduction thereof as may be made without injury to the See also:revenue." This committee reported in favour of Hill's proposals; and an See also:act was passed in 1839, authorizing the See also:treasury to See also:fix the rates of postage, and regulate the mode of their collection, whether by prepayment or otherwise
.
A See also:premium of £200 was offered for the best, and boo for the next best, proposal for bringing stamps into use, having regard to
i Stamp-See also:Collector's See also:Magazine, v
.
161 seq.; J
.
E
.
See also:- GRAY
- GRAY (or GREY), WALTER DE (d. 1255)
- GRAY, ASA (1810-1888)
- GRAY, DAVID (1838-1861)
- GRAY, ELISHA (1835-1901)
- GRAY, HENRY PETERS (1819-18/7)
- GRAY, HORACE (1828–1902)
- GRAY, JOHN DE (d. 1214)
- GRAY, JOHN EDWARD (1800–1875)
- GRAY, PATRICK GRAY, 6TH BARON (d. 1612)
- GRAY, ROBERT (1809-1872)
- GRAY, SIR THOMAS (d. c. 1369)
- GRAY, THOMAS (1716-1771)
Gray, Illustrated See also:Catalogue of Postage Stamps, 6th ed., 167
.
2 See also:Patrick Chalmers, See also:Sir Rowland Hill and James Chalmers, Inventor of the Adhesive Stamp (London, 1882), passim
.
See also the same writer's pamphlet, entitled The Position of Sir Rowland Hill made See also:plain (1882), and his The Adhesive Stamp: a Fresh See also:Chapter in the History of Post-Office Reform (1881)
.
Compare See also:Pearson Hill's See also:tract, A Paper on Postage Stamps, in reply to Chalmers, reprinted from the Philatelic See also:Record of November 1881
.
Pearson Hill has therein shown conclusively the priority of publication by Sir Rowland Hill
.
He has also given See also:- PROOF (in M. Eng. preove, proeve, preve, &°c., from O. Fr . prueve, proeve, &c., mod. preuve, Late. Lat. proba, probate, to prove, to test the goodness of anything, probus, good)
proof of James Chalmers's See also:express See also:acknowledgment of that priority
.
But he has not weakened the See also:evidence of the priority of invention by Chalmers
.
" (r) the convenience as regards the public use; (2) the See also:security against See also:forgery; (3) the facility of being checked and distinguished at the post office, which must of See also:necessity be rapid; and (4) the expense of the See also:production and circulation of the stamps." To this invitation 2600 replies were received, but no improvement was made upon Rowland Hill's suggestions
.
A further See also:Minute, of the 26th of See also:December 1839, announced that the treasury had decided to require that, as far as practicable, the postage of letters should be prepaid, and such prepayment effected by means of stamps
.
Stamped covers or wrappers, stamped envelopes, and adhesive stamps were to be issued by government
.
The stamps were engraved by Messrs See also:Perkins, See also:- BACON
- BACON (through the O. Fr. bacon, Low Lat. baco, from a Teutonic word cognate with " back," e.g. O. H. Ger. pacho, M. H. Ger. backe, buttock, flitch of bacon)
- BACON, FRANCIS (BARON VERULAM, VISCOUNT ST ALBANS) (1561-1626)
- BACON, JOHN (1740–1799)
- BACON, LEONARD (1802–1881)
- BACON, ROGER (c. 1214-c. 1294)
- BACON, SIR NICHOLAS (1509-1579)
Bacon & Petch, of See also:Fleet See also:Street, from Hill's designs, and the See also:Mulready envelopes and covers by Messrs Clowes & Son, of Blackfriars
.
The stamps were appointed to be brought into use on the 6th of May 184o, but they appear to have been issued to the public as See also:early as the 1st of May
.
The See also:penny stamp, bearing a See also:profile of See also:Queen See also:Victoria, was coloured See also:black, and the twopenny stamp See also:blue, with check-letters in the See also:lower angles (in all four angles from See also:April 1858)
.
Up to the 28th of See also:January 18 J4 the stamps were not officially perforated, except in the session of 1851, when stamps, perforated by a Mr See also:Archer, were issued at the House of Commons post office
.
In 1853 the government See also:purchased Archer's patent for £4000
.
The stamps were first See also:water-marked in April 184o
.
The See also:canton of See also:Zurich was the first See also:foreign See also:state to adopt postage stamps, in 1843
.
The stamps reached See also:America in the same year, being introduced by the government of See also:Brazil
.
That of the United States did not adopt them until 1847; but a tentative issue was made by the post office of New See also:York in 1845
.
An adhesive stamp was also issued at St See also:- LOUIS
- LOUIS (804–876)
- LOUIS (893–911)
- LOUIS, JOSEPH DOMINIQUE, BARON (1755-1837)
- LOUIS, or LEWIS (from the Frankish Chlodowich, Chlodwig, Latinized as Chlodowius, Lodhuwicus, Lodhuvicus, whence-in the Strassburg oath of 842-0. Fr. Lodhuwigs, then Chlovis, Loys and later Louis, whence Span. Luiz and—through the Angevin kings—Hungarian
Louis in the same year, and in Rhode See also:Island in the next
.
In See also:Europe the Swiss cantons of See also:Geneva (1844) and of See also:Basel (1845) soon followed the example set by Zurich
.
In the See also:Russian See also:Empire the use of postage stamps became See also:general in 1848 (after preliminary issues at St See also:Petersburg and in See also:Finland in 1845)
.
See also:France issued them in 1849
.
The same year witnessed their introduction into See also:Tuscany, See also:Belgium and See also:Bavaria, and also into New See also:South See also:Wales
.
See also:Austria, See also:Prussia, See also:Saxony, See also:Spain, See also:Italy, followed in 185o
.
The use of postage stamps seems to have extended to the Hawaiian Islands (1851?) a year before it reached the Dutch See also:Netherlands (1852)
.
Within twenty-five years of the first issue of a postage stamp in London, the known varieties, issued in all parts of the See also:world, amounted to 1391
.
Of these 841 were of See also:European origin, 333 were See also:American, 59 See also:Asiatic, 55 See also:African
.
The varieties of stamp issued in the several countries of See also:Oceania were 103
.
Of the whole 1391 stamps no less than 811 were already obsolete in 1865, leaving 58o still in currency
.
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