Stamp History - History of Postage Stamps

A historical overview of the world of postage stamps and of stamp collecting.

German Stamp History Page

Mainpage for Stamps

1 Penny Black issued at 5/6/1840

The World Post Society UPU was founded 1875.

Short after the issue of the first stamps the first collectors of stamps were found. First, most people laughed at these collectors. But soon they became more and more. The first collectors collected stamps of the whole world because there were not so much issues at the beginning. These stamps were stored in the most different ways. There were collectors who collected their stamps on a string or affixed their stamps on a wallpaper. This was not a good way collecting stamps. Therefore the first stamp books appeared. The stamps were glued with paste into the books. This was also not a good  treatment for the stamps. The stamps  finally could be handled with more care with the invention of the hinge 1889.

The first association for stamp collectors was founded 1856 in the USA: The "Omnibusclub". There were not only collectors of stamps but also collectors of bugs and so on. The first pure stamp association was the 1866 in the USA founded "Stamp Association".
The first german stamp association was 1869 founded in Heidelberg: "Süddeutsche Philatelistenverein".

"The Monthly Advertiser" was the first stamp magazine. It appeared for the first time 12/15/1862 in Liverpool  

Famous Collectors and their Collections

Dr. John Edward Gray claimed to be the first collector of stamps.

We can find a lot of famous collections at royalties. The english royalty has the most famous collection with very much world rarities especially from Great Britain and its colonies.
The collections of King Faruk of Egypt, of Czar Nikolaus III of Russia, King Carol of Romania were also well known.

The collection of Philipp la Renotière of Ferrary was the most famous private stamp collection.

Ferrary started as a kid to collect stamps. His large property helped him to buy the most valuable stamps. A lot of dealers worked only for him and bought expensive stamps and collections all over the world. Ferrary lived in Paris before World War I. He thought to be a German. Therefore he had to flee to Switzerland when World War I started. France confiscated his collection. Ferrary died 1917.
France auctioned his collection 1921. France got 6.000.000 Goldmarks for the collection. So this unique collection with the most seldom world rarities doesn't exist anymore.

Franklin and Washington

(Issues of postmasters were issued earlier , first issue 1842)

The first US stamp with only a woman

8 ct, 1902 Martha Washington

3 ct, 1919 Goddess Victoria
with flags for victorious ending of World War I

The first stamp with a important woman as a real existing person

3 ct, 1936 Susan B. Anthony who fighted for women rights in the USA

1 1/2 ct, Martha Washington was issued as first not commemorative stamp with a woman 1938

"From the Files of Flying Rhino Jr. High" is an animated show being developed for CBS's Saturday morning line-up. It involves a group of kids who have to battle a former student (Earl) who lives in the depths of the school's boiler room. Earl is a "Phantom" type character who through his huge computer can morph the school into whatever setting he pleases. One week it will be back in time when dinosaurs ruled the earth, or space, or underwater. Our gang has to use their knowledge and wits to transform the school back to its normal state. During their way the kids will learn a lesson about life and an education lesson about whatever the school has been changed into. In my episode "Inverted and Ungluded" one of the kids (Marcus) is a philatelic, much to the ridicule of his friends. "How boring" is the standard reaction. It is not until he reveals that he has found a "Curtiss Jenny Inverted" and that it is worth a lot of money do his friends seem interested in stamps.
Earl (the bad guy) can't stand the fact that Marcus has a better stamp than he does. So, he morphs the school back to a stamp factory in 1918 so he can steal the whole sheet of stamps and have the best collection in the world. Also, because of time travelling rules, if Earl has all the stamps, Marcus would never be able to find his one stamp. Basically, all the rest of the gang gets caught up in the greed of it and have the same motives Earl does. To steal the stamps. It's not until the sheet of stamps is ripped to shreads in a greedy tug-of-war, and they see how sad this makes Marcus, not because of the money but now the world will be deprived of a great stamp to collect, do they realize how greed ruined them. Don't worry, they use their wits to make sure another mistake is made and the Curtiss Jenny is sent out into circulation. It's a bit far fetched, but it is a kid's show.

This episode is sponsored by U.S. Post to show kids that stamp collecting can be fun!

Every episode has to contain actual facts about the educational part of the story. Marcus gives a presentation on the history of stamps. Your concise descriptions helped my write that presentation. I also included the web pages of the stamps so the illustrators can click on and see what they are drawing.

Brent Piaskoski