1) The postage stamp has been around for only a relatively short period of time. The use of stamps for postage was first proposed in England in 1837, when Sir Rowland Hill published a pamphlet entitled “Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability” to put forth the ideas that postal rates should not be based on the distance that a letter or package travels but should instead be based on the weight of the letter or package and that fees for postal services should be collected in advance of the delivery, rather than after, through the use of postage stamps.

2) The ideas proposed by Hill went into effect in England almost immediately, and other countries soon followed suit. The first English stamp, which featured a portrait of then Queen Victoria, was printed in 1840. This stamp, the “penny black,” came in sheets that needed to be separated with scissors and provided enough postage for a letter weighing 14 grams or less to any destination. In 1843, Brazil was the next nation to produce national postage stamps, and various areas in what is today Switzerland also produced postage stamps later in the same year. Postage stamps in five- and ten-cent denominations were first approved by the U.S. Congress in 1847, and by 1860 postage stamps were being issued in more than ninety governmental jurisdictions worldwide.