Joanna

When talking about the history of British stamps most individuals will have heard about the Penny Black and indeed this can be thought of as the first of its kind in the UNITED KINGDOM. The penny black was the very first issued postage stamp that was employed for the UK's cent post back in 1840, though postage stamps were around before that.

Before adhesive paper stamps, letters will be stamped with ink or hand stamped. The initial postmarks were referred to as Bishop Marks after they were invented by the person who - - Henry Bishop. They certainly were first used in 1661 and acted as a resource by indicating the date and month that the item was mailed.

Adhesive postage stamps were first used in 1837 when they were invented by a guy by the name of Rowland Hill. The English schoolmaster was knighted for his efforts and he even created the first uniform postage rates which were predicated on the weight of the thing being posted as opposed to the size of it. It was right after this in 1840 that the penny black became the very first postage stamp in use in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Since then there has been many changes to GB stamps, particularly in the Victorian age when embossed and perforated postage stamps became regular. Stamps had always featured the picture of the King or Queen until the first commemorative group of stamps was issued in 1924 to commemorate the British Empire Exhibition. Ever since then commemorative stamps have grown to be more and more popular with stamps being issued to remember special events, royal birthdays and important British dates.

In addition to being used as payment for postal services around the UK and foreign, stamps also serve another purpose as a collector's item. Rare stamps are frequently sold at auction for a large number of pounds and there are many individuals who consider themselves to be stamp collectors or philatelists as they are also known.

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Specialist organisations that offer stamp auctions and can purchase collections from those individuals wishing to sell can help anyone who has to value their stamps or desires to increase their own group.