on a playable record, etc. Stamps have also been made of materials other
than paper, commonly embossed foil (sometimes of gold); Switzerland
made a stamp partly out of lace and one out of wood; the United States
produced one made of plastic, and the German Democratic Republic once
issued a stamp made entirely of synthetic chemicals. In the Netherlands a
stamp was issued made of silver foil.
The adhesive postage stamp and the uniform postage rate were devised
in Great Britain by James Chalmers around 1834. The same ideas were
brought forward by Lovrenc Košir, a Slovenian postal clerk at the
Viennese court in 1835, but did not meet a favorable response. Later,
the concept of the adhesive postage stamp was 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 a penny and one valued at
twopence.
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 "bull's eye" 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
may 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. The U.P.U. formerly restricted the
use of such stamps to domestic mail, but current U.P.U. regulations allow
non-denominated stamps to be used in international mail as well.
Examples of such stamps include 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 are dispensed and sold. In the United States, the
introduction of Information Based Indicia (IBI) technology has allowed
newer ways to sell stamps. IBI is an encrypted 2-dimensional bar code
that makes counterfeiting harder, makes counterfeiting easier to detect,
and offer value beyond postage. Unlike traditional postage meter indicia,
each IBI is unique. The IBI contains security critical data elements as well
as other information, such as point of origin and the sender. The IBI is
human and machine readable.
Prior to IBI being introduced, postage vault devices were used on
personal computers to allow postage stamps to be printed from one's
computer. The postage vault device is a tamper resistant postal security
device to disable postage equipment when tampered with. The postage
vault can be also identified as the means to store (and keep track of)
monetary funds in the postage vault. You can think of this as prepaying
for the right to print postage from your personal computer. The Internet
is used to reset or replenish funds in the postage vault.
In March 2001, the United States Postal Service authorized Neopost
Online and Northrop Grumman Corporation to test an innovative
purchasing stamp system. This self-service stamp vending system allows
the consumer to peruse through a variety of denominations and
quantities, select the desired purchase and swipe his/her credit card to
submit a purchase order. The stamp vending system then authorizes the
purchase order, prints the stamp sheet(s) and finally dispenses them to
the consumer. The ability to peruse, request, authorize, print, and
dispense a stamp purchase using the Internet makes these the world's
first browser-based stamps. This is the first instance where IBI was
utilized on adhesive labels. The product from this self-service stamp
vending system is aptly named by collectors as Neopost web-enabled
stamps. These stamps were available from March 2001 through August
2003 and were denominated (fixed value) stamps.
In 2002 the United States Postal Service authorized Stamps.com to issue
NetStamps. The NetStamps utilizes IBI technology and can be printed
from personal computers with postal vaults.
In 2004 the United States Postal Service introduced the Automated
Postal Centers (APC). These kiosk provided non-denominated (1 cents to
$99.99) stamps. The intent of the APC is to reduce labor required to
service consumers at the postal counters.
Recently, personal pictures have been paired with IBI technology to
provide a personalized stamp for the consumer. These stamps are
customed made and require a period of time (days) to produce.
The push towards using IBI technology aids the United States Postal
Service in finding new venues to sell stamps. It also reduces the burden
of maintaining the mechanical machines to sell stamps. The United States
Postal Service still relies on cosigning stamps to retailers and banks (via
automatic teller machines (ATMs). 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, stamps dispensed by automatic teller machines (ATMs)
• carrier's stamp
• certified mail stamp
• coil of stamps, tear-off stamps issued individually in a vending
machine, or purchased in a roll of 100
• commemorative stamp - a limited run of stamp designed to
commemorate a particular event
• computer vended postage - advance secure postage that uses
Information Based Indicia (IBI) technology. IBI is an encrypted 2-
dimentional bar code that provides the means to verify the stamp's
authenticity and also provides other information that can be used to
track and trace the mail piece.
• customised stamp - a stamp the picture or image in which can in
some way be chosen by the purchaser, either by sending in a photograph
or by use of the computer. Some of these are not truly stamps but are
technically meter labels.
• 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
• 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
• perforated stamps - while this term is often used to refer to the
perforations around the edge of a stamp (used to divide the sheet into
individual stamps) it is also a technical term for stamps which have been
additionally perforated across the middle leaving a distinctive pattern or
monogram. These modified stamps are usually purchased by large
corporations to guard against theft by their employees.
• personalised - allow user to add his own personalised picture or
photograph
• 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.
• 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 additional
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.
• test stamp - a label not valid for postage, 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. May also be known as "dummy" or "training" stamps.
• 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.
First day covers
On the first day of issue a set of stamps can be purchased attached to
an envelope which had been post-marked with a special commemorative
post mark, or a normal post mark. These enveloped usually bear a
commemorative picture of the subject the stamp is created for.
Souvenir or miniature sheets
Postage stamps are sometimes issued in souvenir sheets or miniature
sheet 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). Sometimes the stamps make up part
of a greater picture. For example, a picture of the Royal Family with the
stamps bearing the faces. Additionally a set of stamps which may be
identical to that on the sheet are sometimes part of the issue.
Cinderellas
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 in Buffalo, New York to
support the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in 1901 (one of these has now
been converted into an actual postage stamp), or may be postage
stamps for imaginary countries or micronations.
Main article: Stamp collecting
Stamp collecting is a popular hobby, and stamps are often produced as
collectibles. 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 such as 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
remainders 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.
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