Postage stamp





A postage stamp is evidence of pre-paying a fee for postal services. Usually
a small paper rectangle which is attached to an envelope, signifying that
the person sending the letter or package has paid for delivery', it is the
most popular alternative to using a prepaid-postage envelope.

Stamps have been issued in other shapes, however: the circular stamps of New
Zealand, triangular and pentagonal, and Sierra Leone and Tonga have issued
self-adhesive stamps in the shape of fruit, Bhutan has issued a stamp with
its national anthem on a playable record, etc. Stamps have also been made of
material other than paper, commonly [embossed] foil, and the German
Democratic Republic once issued a stamp made entirely of synthetic chemicals.

History

The adhesive postage stamp and the uniform postage rate was devised by James
Chalmers around 1834. The same ideas were published by Rowland Hill, in
Postal Reform: its Importance and Practibility in 1837. In it he argued that
it would be better for the sender to pay the cost of delivery, rather than
the addressee who could refuse the letter if they could not or did not want
to pay, as sometimes happened at the time. He also argued for a uniform rate
of one penny per letter, no matter where its destination. Accounting costs
for the government would thus be cut; postage would no longer be charged
according to how far a letter had travelled, which required each letter to
have an individual entry in the Royal Mail's accounts. Chalmers' ideas were
finally adopted by Parliament in August, 1839 and the General Post Office
launched the Penny Post service the next year in 1840 with two
prepaid-postage pictorial envelopes or wrappers : one valued at one penny
and one valued at two pennies.

Three months later the first prepaid-postage stamp, known as the Penny Black
was issued with the profile of Queen Victoria printed on it. Because the
United Kingdom issued the first stamps, the Universal Postal Union (U.P.U.)
grants it an exemption from its rule that the identification of the issuing
country must appear on a stamp in roman script for use in international
mails. Before joining the U.P.U. many countries did not do this (e. g. the
"bullseye" stamps of Brazil); there are very few violations of the rule
since this time, though one example is the U.S. Pilgrim Tercentenary series,
on which the country designation was inadvertently excluded. Because of this
the numerous early issues of China and Japan often confound new collectors
unfamiliar with oriental scripts. A stamp must also show a face value in the
issuing country's currency. Some countries have issued stamps with a letter
of the alphabet or designation such as "First Class" for a face value.
Because of the U.P.U. rules their use is restricted to domestic mail, but
breach of this rule is often tolerated. (Exceptions to this are the British
"E" stamp (intended to pay the rate for mailing letters to Europe) and the
South African "International Letter Rate" stamp.)

Dispensing

Since their inception there have been numerous innovative developments in
how stamps have been dispensed and sold. Recently one has been able to print
up postage stamps from one's personal computer. In 2002 the United States
Postal Service licensed Stamps.com to issue NetStamps, postage that can be
printed up on special labels and, unlike previous postage the USPS licensed
individuals to print up on their computers, these stamps can be used on any
date, not just the date one prints them up. (There are other types of
computer-vended postage as well.)

For instance, ATM stamps have been sold at automatic teller machines (ATMs),
although the may be sold via stamp catalogues of the postal service or
possibly at philatelic windows. They must be the same size and thickness as
currency in order to be dispensed by the ATM.

Types of stamps

   * Airmail - for payment of airmail service. While the word or words
     "airmail" or equivalent is usually printed on the stamp, Scott (the
     dominant U.S. cataloguing firm) has recognised as airmail stamps some
     U.S. stamps issued in denominations good for then-current international
     airmail rates, and showing the silhouette of an airplane. The other
     three major catalogs do not give any special status to airmail stamps.
   * ATM -
        o stamps dispensed by automatic teller machines (ATMs)
        o Automatenmarken, stamps issued in the denomination of the
          customer's choice by a kind of machine (similar to computer-vended
          postage) are also referred to by the acronymn ATM, which has
          created some confusion.
   * carrier's stamp
   * certified mail stamp
   * commemorative stamp - a limited run of stamp designed to commemorate a
     particular event
   * definitive - stamps issued mainly for the everyday payment of postage.
     They often have less appealing designs than commemoratives. The same
     design may be used for many years. Definitive stamps are often the same
     basic size. The use of the same design over an extended period of time
     often leads to many unintended varieties. This makes them far more
     interesting to philatelists than commemoratives.
   * express mail stamp / special delivery stamp
   * late fee stamp - issued to show payment of a fee to allow inclusion of
     a letter or package in the outgoing dispatch although it has been
     turned in after the cut-off time
   * local post
   * military stamp - stamps issued specifically for the use of members of a
     country's armed forces, usually using a special postal system
   * official mail stamp - issued for use solely by the government or a
     government agency or bureau
   * occupation stamp - a stamp issued for use by either an occupying army
     or by the occupying army or authorities for use by the civilian
     population
   * parcel post
   * postage due - a stamp applied showing that the full amount of required
     postage has not been paid, and indicating the amount of shortage and
     penalties the recipient will have to pay. (Collectors and philatelists
     debate whether these should be called stamps, some saying that as they
     do not pre-pay postage they should be called "labels".) The United
     States Post Office Department issued "parcel post postage due" stamps.
   * postal tax - a stamp indicating that a tax (above the regular postage
     rate) required for sending letters has been paid. This stamp is often
     mandatory on all mail issued on a particular day or for a few days
     only.
   * registered - for pre-payment of a registery fee (fee for "registered
     mail").
   * self-adhesive stamp - stamps not requiring licking or moisture to be
     applied to the back to stick. Self-sticking.
   * semi-postal / charity stamp - a stamp issued with an additonal charge
     above the amount needed to pay postage, where the extra charge is used
     for charitable purposes such as the Red Cross. The usage of semi-postal
     stamps is entirely at the option of the purchaser. Countries (such as
     Belgium and Switzerland) that make extensive use of this form of
     charitable fund-raising design such stamps in a way that makes them
     more desirable for collectors.
   * special handling - gave parcel post mail first-class treatment in the
     United States.
   * test stamp - these labels are not valid for postage and are not usually
     available to the public. They are used by postal authorities on sample
     mail to test various sorting and cancelling machines or machines that
     can detect the absence or presence of a stamp on an envelope. Putting a
     stamp on the upper left corner of an envelope can confuse these
     machines.
   * war tax stamp - A variation on the postal tax stamp intended to defray
     the costs of war.
   * water-activated stamp - for many years "water-activated" stamps were
     the only kind so this term only entered into use with the advent of
     self-adhesive stamps. The adhesive or gum on the back of the stamp must
     be moistened (usually it is done by licking, thus the stamps are also
     known as "lick and stick") to affix it to the envelope or package.

Souvenir sheets

Postage stamps are sometimes issued in souvenir sheets containing just one
or a small number of stamps. Souvenir sheets typically include additional
artwork or information printed on the selvage (border surrounding the
stamps).

Stamps should be distinguished from cinderellas, stamp-like labels that
resemble, but are not, postage stamps. Cinderellas might be commemorative
labels, such as those issued to support the Transmissippi Exposition in
Buffalo, New York (USA) in 1901 (one of these has now been converted into an
actual postage stamp), or may be postage stamps for imaginary countries.
Clifford Harper has even designed "anarchist postage stamps".

"Test stamps" are not actually postage stamps, not being valid or intended
for prepayment of postage, but are for testing printing processes,
equipment, and the like.

Collecting

Stamp collecting or philately is a popular hobby.

Some countries are known for producing stamps intended for collectors rather
than postal use. This practice produces a significant portion of the
countries' government revenues. This has been condoned by the collecting
community for places like Liechtenstein and Pitcairn Islands that have
followed relatively conservative stamp issuing policies. Abuses of this
policy, however, are generally condemned. Among the most notable abusers
have been Nicholas F. Seebeck and the component states of the United Arab
Emirates. Seebeck operated in the 1890s as an agent of Hamilton Bank Note
Company when he approached several Latin American countries with an offer to
produce their entire postage stamp needs for free. In return he would have
the exclusive rights to market the remaiders of the stamps to collectors.
Each year a new issue of stamps was produced whose postal validity would
expire at the end of the year; this assured Seebeck of a continuing supply
of remainders. In the 1960s certain stamp printers such as the Barody Stamp
Company arranged contracts to produce quantities of stamps for the separate
Emirates and other countries. These abuses combined with the sparse
population of the desert states earned them the reputation of being known as
the "sand dune" countries.

The combination of hundreds of countries, each producing scores of different
stamps each year has resulted in a total of some 400,000 different types in
existence as of 2000. In recent years, the annual world output has averaged
about 10,000 types each year.

Famous stamps

   * Penny Black
   * The "Treskilling" Yellow
   * Inverted Jenny
   * British Guiana 1c magenta
   * Perot provisional
   * Hawaii Missionaries
   * Basel Dove
   * Uganda Cowries
   * Vineta provisional
   * Black Honduras
   * Scinde Dawk
   * St. Louis Bears