Since different kinds and sizes of mail normally pay different amounts of postage, the stamps need to carry a value.

In 1862 Gray stated that he " began to collect postage stamps shortly after the system was established and before it had become a rage ".

Broun stated that “ the substance of any two Zane Grey books could be written upon the back of a postage stamp .” T. K. Whipple praised a typical Grey novel as a modern version of the ancient Beowulf saga, “ a battle of passions with one another and with the will, a struggle of love and hate, or remorse and revenge, of blood, lust, honor, friendship, anger, grief — all of a grand scale and all incalculable and mysterious .” But he goes on to criticize Grey ’ s writing, “ His style, for example, has the stiffness which comes from an imperfect mastery of the medium.

In 1874 the Universal Postal Union exempted Great Britain from its rule which stated that a country's name had to appear on their postage stamps, so a profile of the reigning monarch was all that was required for identification of Britain's stamps.

The claim that the Scotsman James Chalmers was the inventor of the postage stamp first surfaced in 1881 when the book " The Penny Postage Scheme of 1837 ", written by his son, Patrick Chalmers, was published.

James Chalmers organized petitions " for a low and uniform rate of postage ".

In 1856, under the direction of Postmaster General James Campbell, Toppan and Carpenter, ( commissioned by the U. S. government to print U. S. postage stamps through the 1850s ) purchased a rotary machine designed to separate stamps, patented in England in 1854 by William and Henry Bemrose, who were printers in Derby, England.

U. S. postage stamp ( c. 1953 ) commemorating the Louisiana Purchase ; Barbé-Marbois is pictured alongside James Monroe and Robert Livingston ( 1746-1813 ) | Robert Livingston

On September 16, 1995 the U. S. Post Office issues a James P. Johnson 32 cent commemorative postage stamp.

This cyclic behaviour is well illustrated by a postage stamp issued in 1946, depicting the view from St James Anglican Church.

James Chalmers ( February 2, 1782, Arbroath, Angus-May 26, 1853, Dundee ) was a Scotsman who it was claimed, by his son, was the inventor of the adhesive postage stamp.

His son, Patrick Chalmers ( born Dundee, July 26, 1819 – died Wimbledon, Surrey, October 3, 1891 ), wrote many articles that attempted to evince his father's share in the work of postal reform and as inventor of the adhesive postage stamp .< ref name =" post-1837 "> His book Robert Wallace MP and James Chalmers, the Scottish Postal Reformers was published in 1890.

In 1971 a further book was published about James Chalmers James Chalmers Inventor of the adhesive postage stamp.

* William J Smith & J E Metcalfe, James Chalmers Inventor of the adhesive postage stamp, David Winter & Son Ltd, 1971, 148pp

* The first essay for adhesive postage stamps submitted by James Chalmers to the General Post Office on 17 February 1838

In 1980, UPI Washington syndicated news reported that the United States Postal Service was "... investigating whether Rep. James H. Quillen, R-Tenn. illegally purcahsed hundreds of commemorative Olympic postage stamps after they were recalled " after the " stamps were ordered recalled last March 11 because of the U. S. boycott of the summer games in Moscow, and those stamps had been previously sold became collectors ' items.

Other U. S. postage stamps with Blackshear illustrations include portraits of Joe Louis, Jelly Roll Morton and Thelonious Monk for the Jazz Series, and illustrations for stamps commemorating James Cagney, The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Beau Geste and Stagecoach for the Classic Hollywood Movies series, as well as several stamps for Classic Movie Monsters.

Patrick Chalmers continued to campaign until he died in 1891 to have his father recognised as the inventor of the postage stamp.

The first independent evidence for Chalmers ' claim is the essay and proposal he submitted for adhesive postage stamps to the General Post Office, dated 8 February 1838 and received by the Post Office on 17 February 1838.

However, in neither article was there any mention of " a bit of paper just large enough to bear the stamp ", so merely reading the Times would not have made Chalmers aware that Hill had already made that proposal ; this suggests either that he had read Hill's booklet and was merely elaborating on Hill's idea, or that he in fact independently developed the idea of the modern postage stamp.

Patrick Chalmers daughter, Leah Chalmers, wrote a book How the adhesive postage stamp was born which was published in 1939.

* Leah Chalmers, How the adhesive postage stamp was born, London, P S King & Son Ltd, 1939, 33pp

Colin Ward, along with Harper, published a book in 1997 called Stamps: Designs For Anarchist Postage Stamps, containing an essay by Ward on the subject of anarchists and postage stamps.

Although commonly known as an essay, the stamp was not really an essay as it was never intended that a postage stamp be produced based on the design, nor was it an un-adopted design.

Furthermore, he submitted an essay for a proposal for an adhesive postage stamp and cancelling device which was dated February 8, 1838.

After the Scinde Dawk, Colonel Forbes of the Calcutta Mint came up with an essay for a postage stamp depicting a lion and palm tree.

His career as a writer began while he was still in high school, when one of his classmates offered him a brand-new pen and a postage stamp from Chile in exchange for an essay on the theme of " Hope ", the homework for the next day.

Many adults dismissed it as a childish pursuit but later many of those same collectors, as adults, began to systematically study the available postage stamps and publish books about them.

A shift can also be seen in Korea itself, where postage stamps issued in 1884 used the name " Corean Post " in English, but those from 1885 and thereafter used " Korea " or " Korean Post ".

It covers all postage stamp producing nations in one volume for those years.

The stamps of the 1861 series, unlike those of the two previous issues, remained valid for postage after they had been superseded — as has every subsequent United States stamp.

Franking ( or " franks ") are any and all devices or markings such as postage stamps ( including those pre-printed on postal stationery ), printed or stamped impressions, codings, labels, manuscript writings ( including " privilege " signatures ), and / or any other authorized form of markings affixed or applied to mails to qualify them to be postally serviced.

In those days postage was collected from the addressee after delivering the letter.

Both postal administrations issue their own postage stamps for use in Andorra — those of Spain and France are not valid.

The first postage stamps, those of the United Kingdom, had no name.

Members located outside the United States pay higher dues as international members to compensate for the greater cost of postage, while those 65 and older pay reduced dues as senior members.

Shortages of particular values were a regular occurrence from 1900 through 1910, resulting in nearly 40 types of surcharges, as well as postage due stamps pressed into regular service by overprinting obliterating bars on the " PORTEADO " and " RECEBER " text of those stamps.

Under Abdülaziz's reign, Turkey's first postage stamps were issued in 1863, and Turkey joined the Universal Postal Union in 1875 as a founding member.

West Berlin issued its own postage stamps, which were often the same as West German postage stamps but with the additional word " Berlin " added.

Rockwell's Four Freedoms paintings were also reproduced as postage stamps by the United States Post Office.

Also, postage stamps of the Four Freedoms were issued in 1943 and in 1946.

For example, both postage stamps and currency were issued for the empire as a whole.

In 2001, the characters were honoured in the UK with a set of commemorative postage stamps, issued by the Post Office.

Before this time, ink and hand-stamps ( hence the word ' stamp '), usually made from wood or cork, were often used to frank the mail and confirm the payment of postage.

Before the introduction of postage stamps, mail in the UK was paid for by the recipient, a system that was associated with an irresolvable problem: the costs of delivering mail were not recoverable by the postal service when recipients were unable or unwilling to pay for delivered items, and senders had no incentive to restrict the number, size, or weight of items sent, whether or not they would ultimately be paid for.

Postage stamps during this era were the most popular way of paying for mail, but by the end of the 20th century were rapidly being eclipsed by the use of metered postage and bulk mailing by businesses.

Throughout modern history various innovations were used to apply or indicate that postage has been paid on a mailed item and as such the invention of the postage stamp has been credited to several different people.

Hill ’ s ideas for postage stamps and charging postage based upon weight soon took hold and were adopted in many countries throughout the world.

Although a number of people laid claim to the concept of the postage stamp, it is well documented that stamps were first introduced in the United Kingdom on 1 May 1840, as a part of postal reforms promoted by Sir Rowland Hill.

For about the first ten years of postage stamp use ( depending on the country ), stamps were issued without perforations.

After a period of trial and error and modifications of Archer's invention, new machines based on the principles pioneered by Archer were purchased and in 1854 the U. K. postal authorities started continuously issuing perforated postage stamps in the Penny Red and all subsequent designs.

In October 2002, on the 40th anniversary of their formation, they were the subjects of a special issue of Australian postage stamps.

Special postage stamps were issued from October 1898 until 1908, when a new communications cable was laid to the mainland, which made the pigeon post redundant.

Fewer postmarks are used now than previously, with the advent of meter labels, which indicate the precise date and time of acceptance at the post office, some types of computer vended postage, and computerized postage that people can print from their own PCs ( called PC Postage in the United States, these services were offered by such companies as Stamps. com and Neopost, Inc .).