Stamps Development

Development of Stamps
Brazil became the second country to use adhesive postage stamps in 1843, and the United States was the third in 1847.
By 1860 most nations had adopted the use of the postage stamp.
Early designs imitated those of Britain.
Monarchies and their territories issued stamps with portraits of their reigning king or queen. The United States depicted George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, two deceased statesmen, on its first stamps.
Some countries used national symbols.

Nonportrait designs
became popular by the end of the 19th century, and stamps created to commemorate important events began to be issued.
Today almost all countries issue large, colorful pictorials, often solely for the revenue obtained from sale to collectors.
Portraits of presidents and others who have made significant contributions to American life have since been featured on U.S. stamps.
Portraits of living people, however, are forbidden—a person’s likeness cannot appear on a U.S. stamp until at least ten years have passed since his or her death.
The only exceptions are presidents, whose portraits may appear on stamps immediately after they die.

Postage stamps eventually took on a wide variety of special purposes.

Postage-due stamps
(or simply “dues,” as collectors call them)

were affixed to envelopes to indicate insufficient postage.

Special stamps for airmail
newspapers
military delivery
income tax
railway delivery
special handling
and all sorts of other purposes were created.

Semipostals, or charity stamps, became a popular way for governments to raise funds for various causes.
These stamps cost more than their postage value, with the difference going toward the charitable cause.

Stamps have historically shown a specified amount of prepaid postage.
But in recent years many stamps have been printed without denominations, the majority from the United States, which often prints huge quantities of one-ounce, first-class stamps in anticipation of a postage increase.
The exact amount of the increase is not known at the time the stamps are printed, so they are simply marked with a letter of the alphabet or some other designation to indicate they represent the going rate for a one-ounce letter.
The year of issue is commonly placed at the bottom of U.S. nondenominational stamps to avoid confusion.

The last major postage innovation of the 20th century was the development and wide distribution of self-adhesive stamps—stamps that do not have to be moistened.
Consumers love them for their convenience, but collectors hate them because they are difficult to store in a stamp album.
Eventually, the only “lickable” stamps will likely be those intended primarily for collectors and souvenir hunters, such as America’s enormously popular;

Elvis Presley stamps
James Dean stamps
Marilyn Monroe stamps

The 21st century is apt to bring major changes to the postal industry, due mostly to the growing use of e-mail and other electronic means of transmitting information.
As post offices become less and less important and postal revenues decline, stamps commemorating events and folk heroes will likely become more common as a means of increasing sales.