A Primer on the History of Stamp Collecting - Part II


As we mentioned yesterday, stamps were one of the main causes of the American Revolution.  Great Britain's Stamp Act of 1765 imposed a tax on the population of the American British colonies without any input from the colonists.  This tax led to one of the most famous rallying cries of the colonists and one of the founding principles of the USA:  "No taxation without representation."  But those types of stamps are different than the postage stamps that most people collect today.

The first government-issued postage stamps were issued by Great Britain in 1840, and they were a hit right from the beginning.  Although many private and local post stamps had been issued by then, Britain's Penny Black and Penny Blue were the first "official" stamps printed by a national postal authority.  Sir Rowland Hill came up with the idea as a means to prepay postage at the expense of the mailer instead of charging the recipient on delivery, but an additional benefit was a standardized rate for all mail carried throughout the country.  His idea caught on quickly and spread throughout the world, with the United States issuing its first postage stamp in 1847. 

Stamp collecting also became popular very quickly, and the wares of stamp dealers began to be in demand.  By the end of the 19th century stamp albums, along with stamp collecting tools such as stamp tongs, stamp hinges, magnifiers and stamp catalogs had come into common use.  Around this same time, at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, some of the world's most important stamp sets were issued.  Classic US stamps falling into this category include the Columbian set of 1892, issued in connection with Chicago's Columbian Exposition - the World's Fair that celebrated the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America. Prized for their beautiful engraving and designs, the Columbians were also the first (technically, anyway) commemorative stamps issued by the US.  Other important US stamp sets from this period include the Trans-Mississippi Exposition set and the Pan-American Exposition set.  Far more (in my opinion) than the coveted (and in my opinion highly overpriced) Graf Zeppelin set, when taken together, the Columbians, the Trans-Mississippis and the Pan-Americans represent the pinnacle of US stamps, and I do not believe their quality and beauty will ever be surpassed.

The Universal Postal Union, created in the late 19th century, also significantly impacted stamp collecting.  We'll discuss the UPU more in a couple of days, but for now suffice it to say that the UPU imposed standardized stamp colors for international mail, causing a plethora of new stamps to be issued in order to comply.

Tomorrow we'll add the final post in this short series on the history of stamp collecting.