50 Fun Facts About Postage Stamps

Which country, having issued the world's first postage stamp, is the only one that leaves its name off its stamps?

The United Kingdom is the only country that does not need to print its name on its stamps, an arrangement foreign post offices accepted provided the sovereign's effigy appears. Only the denomination is required.

On the 1918 Inverted Jenny, the most famous error in American stamp printing, what is printed upside down?

An airplane, a Curtiss JN-4 biplane modified to carry mail, is printed upside down on the 24-cent stamp, and only one pane of 100 was ever found.

Whose profile, copied from an 1834 William Wyon cameo, appears on the Penny Black, the world's first adhesive stamp?

Queen Victoria's head came to the stamp via a sketch by Henry Corbould, engraved by Charles Heath and his son; Wyon's cameo had been used on a medal for her 1837 visit to the City of London.

Which singer’s 1993 US stamp design was picked by 1.2 million mailed ballots, the young image beating the older one?

Elvis Presley’s young likeness took more than 75% of the vote, and the 29-cent stamp was unveiled at Graceland on what would have been his 58th birthday.

A character poisoned by licking envelope gum in a 1996 episode of which sitcom is tied to the rise of self-stick stamps?

Seinfeld's Susan Ross was poisoned after licking the flaps of too many gummed envelopes, and the episode has been linked anecdotally to growing American worries about gummed paper.

What did the US Post Office do in 1962 after a Dag Hammarskjöld stamp appeared with its yellow background inverted?

Reprinted 40 million on purpose so the invert would have no rarity value; the finder, New Jersey jeweler Leonard Sherman, sought an injunction but later donated his sheet to the American Philatelic Society.

How were the earliest stamps of the 1840s, printed in sheets without perforations, separated for sale and use?

Cut apart with scissors, since the sheets were imperforate; Britain's first officially perforated stamps did not appear until February 1854.

Which country's 1843 'Bull's Eye' stamps used an abstract design so a postmark would never deface its emperor's face?

Brazil was the second country in the world, after Great Britain, to issue stamps valid nationwide, and its Bull's Eyes carried only ornate numerals so Emperor Pedro II's image could never be disfigured by a postmark.

Which stamp replaced Britain’s first adhesive in 1841 after black cancellation marks proved hard to see on it?

The Penny Red kept the Penny Black's design and even some of its printing plates, and about 21 billion were produced before it gave way in 1879.

Georges Herpin coined which word for stamp collecting in 1864, from Greek roots meaning 'love' and 'exempt from tax'?

Philately replaced timbromanie, roughly 'stamp mania', a name collectors disliked; Herpin said stamps had been collected and studied for six or seven years before his word existed.

Tonga in 1963 and Sierra Leone in 1964 were the first countries to issue self-adhesive stamps, to solve what problem?

Gum sticking together in humidity plagued water-activated stamps in tropical climates, so both governments tried pressure-sensitive labels; the Royal Mail did not follow until October 1993.

Rowland Hill's 1837 pamphlet Post Office Reform argued for prepaid letters at what flat rate, whatever the distance?

One penny per half ounce, paid by the sender, replaced charges based on distance and the number of sheets; in 1840, the first year of Penny Post, letters sent in the UK more than doubled.

Which Founding Father, who spearheaded repeal of the 1765 Stamp Act, is on US postage more than anyone but Washington?

Benjamin Franklin testified in the House of Commons against the Stamp Act after failing to stop it, and the Washington–Franklin Issues later pictured the pair many times over a 14-year run, the longest of any US series.

Which body, founded in 1874 at German postmaster Heinrich von Stephan’s urging, governs international mail?

The Universal Postal Union is among the oldest intergovernmental organizations still operating, with more than 190 member states and a headquarters in Bern, Switzerland.

Which shoe designer paid a then-record $9.48 million at Sotheby's in 2014 for the world's most famous rare stamp?

Stuart Weitzman later pencilled his initials and a tiny stiletto drawing on the back, joining a line of owners' marks; 80% of the proceeds went to a retired Bulgarian wrestler named in John du Pont's will.

The 1994 US Legends of the West sheet was recalled because its Bill Pickett stamp actually portrayed whom?

His brother Ben Pickett appeared in a widely reproduced photo labelled as the bulldogging star; after the recall the USPS sold 150,000 of the error sheets by lottery at face value.

Staff of which US agency found 1979's inverted $1 candle-holder stamps and were ordered to hand them back or be fired?

CIA staffers kept one invert each after selling a block of 85 to dealer Jacques Schiff for a reported $25,000; the agency later demanded those nine stamps back.

Financier Bill Gross swapped an Inverted Jenny plate block in 2005 for which one-cent 1868 stamp, one of two known?

The 1c Z Grill owes its name to the 'Z' variety of grill, a pattern of tiny indentations pressed into the paper, and the swap with dealer Donald Sundman gave Gross the only complete collection of 19th-century US stamps.

William Robey bought the only sheet of Inverted Jennys on 14 May 1918 and sold it a week later for how much?

$15,000 came from Philadelphia dealer Eugene Klein, after a week in which postal inspectors tried to buy the sheet back and Robey hid it under his mattress.

China's 1968 stamp 'The Whole Country Is Red' was pulled within hours because which territory was left unshaded?

Taiwan was merely outlined because it was under Republic of China control, though the official reason for withdrawal cited missing Spratly and Paracel Islands and mis-drawn borders.

What fairy-tale name do collectors give a label that resembles a stamp but was never issued by a government for postage?

Cinderella covers poster stamps, propaganda labels, Christmas seals and issues of unrecognised 'countries'; Russia's rural zemstvo stamps of 1860–1917 are a famous local type.

Which feature did Royal Mail add to its everyday stamps, making the old unmarked designs invalid after 31 July 2023?

A barcode now sits beside the royal profile, and Royal Mail let unbarcoded stamps be exchanged for barcoded ones through what it called the 'Stamp Swap Out' scheme.

Bhutan, which issued scented rose stamps in the 1970s, also put its national anthem on a stamp that could be what?

Played on a record player, the stamp was itself a miniature playable disc; Sierra Leone and Tonga went on to issue stamps shaped like fruit.

What is the term for the everyday workhorse stamps a post office keeps on sale for years, as opposed to commemoratives?

Definitives come in many denominations and shades over a long life; philatelists have identified over 1,000 varieties of Britain's single Elizabeth II profile design alone.

Which security feature, often a small crown in the paper, can make one of two otherwise identical stamps far rarer?

A watermark, a crown or other national symbol appearing once per stamp or as a continuous pattern, was nearly universal in the 19th and early 20th centuries but has largely fallen out of use.

Which British king amassed one of the world’s most valuable stamp collections and led the Royal Philatelic Society?

George V's fellow collectors ranged from King Carol II of Romania to John Lennon and Freddie Mercury, both of whom collected stamps as boys.

Australia’s first stamp as a Commonwealth, the 1913 red 1d Kangaroo and Map, broke with tradition by leaving off what?

The monarch's head was omitted because the Fisher Labor government included republicans who strenuously opposed it, and the design stayed on issue for 38 years.

Britain, the originator of the postage stamp, did not issue a commemorative until 1924, marking which event?

British Empire Exhibition stamps were the first UK issue to carry the word 'British', since the country's name otherwise never appears; Peru had issued a commemorative back in 1870.

The French Second Republic’s first stamps of 1 January 1849 bore the head of which goddess instead of a ruler?

Ceres gave way in 1852 to the head of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, then returned in 1870 for the Third Republic in a slightly different lithographed design.

Mauritius's famous 1847 'Post Office' stamps were engraved by Joseph Barnard, who had reached the island in 1838 how?

As a stowaway, Barnard reached Mauritius in 1838 and made his living there as an engraver and miniature painter; the 'Post Office' wording was changed to 'Post Paid' on the next issue.

Hawaii’s 1851 stamps, printed on tissue-thin pelure paper, take their nickname from which group’s surviving letters?

Missionaries working in the islands sent most of the surviving covers; the fragile paper means 90% of known copies are damaged, and the 2-cent is the rarest with 15 recorded.

The British stamps of 1952 to 1967 were based on whose photographic portrait of the newly acceded Elizabeth II?

Dorothy Wilding's photograph gave the series its name; the first Wildings, ½d and 2½d, appeared on 5 December 1952 and were replaced on 5 June 1967.

Which engineer, later a champion of standard time zones, designed Canada’s first stamp, the 1851 Threepenny Beaver?

Sandford Fleming's beaver in an oval frame made Canada's first stamp a pictorial rather than a royal portrait, and Canada's first perforated stamps followed in 1858.

Canada's 1898 map stamp inscribed 'XMAS 1898', often called the first Christmas stamp, was actually issued to mark what?

Imperial Penny Postage, a cut-price rate across the Empire, was what the map stamp inaugurated; the first stamps actually depicting the Nativity were Hungary’s, in 1943.

Peru's 1870 scarlet stamp, often called the earliest commemorative ever, marked the 20th anniversary of what?

South America's first railway got a 5¢ Locomotive and Arms stamp decades before Britain managed a commemorative, while the US Columbian Issue of 1893 is the other usual claimant.

Who produced many of the caricatures that mocked the ornate Mulready letter sheet launched alongside the Penny Black?

Rival stationers saw the government letter sheet as a threat to their livelihood, and the design was so elaborate and misunderstood that it drew widespread ridicule.

How many stamps were issued in 1936 for Edward VIII before he abdicated, one of the shortest reigns on British stamps?

Four stamps made up the entire issue; in 1941 wartime economies meant his successor's 1937 definitives were printed with less ink, in noticeably lighter shades.

Which stamp catalogue, begun in 1868 by a New York dealer, has a numbering system its publisher claims as copyright?

Scott's numbers use plain figures for regular stamps and letter prefixes such as 'C' for airmail, and the firm once sued the Minkus catalogue's publisher for using them.

Beginning in Britain in 1868, why did companies punch tiny holes spelling their initials through their stamps?

To deter employees stealing them was the point of such 'perfins', a contraction of 'perforated initials'; collectors also call them SPIFS, stamps perforated with initials of firms and societies.

Which country solved the problem of underpaid letters in 1859 by issuing the first official postage due stamps?

France had them affixed at the delivery office so the shortfall was collected from the recipient; the UPU later had underpaid mail marked with a 'T', and from April 1879 the missing amount was written beside it.

Which country issued the first stamp for an airmail flight in May 1917, by overprinting its special delivery stamps?

Italy beat the United States by a year; the 1918 Jenny issue was the first stamp made specifically for airmail, though the word 'airmail' appears nowhere on it.

The 1845 Basel Dove, the only stamp the Swiss canton ever issued, was the first in the world to be printed how?

In three colours, black, crimson and blue, with a white embossed dove carrying a letter in its beak, to a design by the architect Melchior Berri.

Which Swiss canton’s ‘4 and 6’ stamps of March 1843 were the world’s second type of stamp, after the Penny Black?

Zürich's two imperforate values, a large '4' and a '6', were the first stamps used in Switzerland; Geneva followed later in 1843 and Basel in 1845, with federal issues from 1850.

Asia's first adhesive stamps, the 1852 Scinde Dawks of British-run Sindh, were embossed on wafers of what?

Red sealing wax wafers impressed on paper carried the Merchants' Mark of the British East India Company, after Sir Bartle Frere copied Rowland Hill's uniform-rate reform for Sindh.

India's 1854 Four Annas stamp, printed in red and blue, is prized in the version where which element was inverted?

The central portrait ended up upside down on at least six sheets whose red frames had been turned 180 degrees before going back into the press.

When China’s first postage issue failed to arrive from Japan in 1897, what did the post overprint for use instead?

Revenue stamps in red, the idle 3¢ issue, were overprinted to meet demand, and the 'Small One Dollar' variety is now among the most valuable stamps in the world.

The Baden 9 Kreuzer error of 1851, one of Germany's great rarities, was printed on paper of what colour instead of pink?

Green paper was meant for the 6 Kreuzer value, and the printer apparently read a '6' for a '9' when matching plates to sheets.

Arthur Pitney's postage meter company merged in 1920 with a firm run by which maker of post-office cancelling machines?

Walter Bowes's Universal Stamping Machine Company joined Pitney's to form the Pitney-Bowes Postage Meter Company, whose Model M was authorized on 1 September 1920.

Among stamp collectors, an overprint that changes a stamp's face value, as when a currency goes decimal, is called what?

A surcharge raises or lowers a stamp's value when prices change too fast for a new issue; Sierra Leone used them when the Commonwealth went decimal in the 1960s.

Among stamp collectors, what does the French term tête-bêche, literally 'head-to-tail', describe on a sheet of stamps?

A pair with one copy inverted can be deliberate or a mechanical error; booklet sheets printed from both sides of a plate yield a row of such pairs where the columns meet.