A postage stamp, also known as a stamp, imprint, seal, or seal, is proof of prior payment for mailings made in the form of a label, usually stickered, or directly printed. A stamp is a small piece of paper, usually rectangular or square in shape, that is affixed to an envelope, indicating that the person sending the shipment has paid for the service.. Mail art often uses this medium and format for dissemination by creating false postage stamps of all kinds.. Variable value stamps or ATMs are those printed and distributed through machines. These print the desired postage value by the user on special paper, and the resulting stamp or embosser can be used for postage as a “traditional” stamp.. History. The issue of the first postage stamp was part of a profound reform of the British postal service undertaken by James Chalmers (1834) and Rowland Hill (1837). Until then, the addressee paid for the shipment based on the kilometres travelled and not on its weight. Hill proposed that the sender should pay for the shipment at a uniform rate based on weight and not on mileage.. According to the legend, in 1835 the English professor Rowland Hill, who was travelling around Scotland, was ready to rest in an inn. As he was warming up in the fireplace, he saw...
Read MoreA stamp catalog (or stamp catalog) is a standard stamp catalog with descriptions and prices.. The stamp catalog is an essential tool of philately and stamp collecting. Quotation catalogs are part of philatelic literature.. History. The first stamp catalog was published in France by Oscar Berger-Levrault on September 17, 1861 and the first catalog illustrated by Alfred Potiquet in December 1861 (based on the previous work).. The first catalogs in Britain were published in 1862 by Frederick Booty, Monte Brown, and Dr. John Edward Grey. The first in the United States was The Stamp Collector’s Manual by AC Kline (a pseudonym of John William Kline), also 1862.. Originally catalogs were price list dealers’, although today it is less common. The catalogs of some major publishers continue to serve as an official price list for the publisher. For example, Stanley Gibbons in the UK specifically states in the catalog that the price listed is the estimated selling price by Stanley Gibbons Ltd. Instead, the Scott catalog serves as a reference document for the expected prices used by buyers and sellers. Over time, as philately developed, catalogs tend to accumulate additional supporting details about stamps, such as issue dates, color variations, and so on. As their use became widespread by collectors, catalogs came to define what was and was not a legitimate...
Read MoreFirst of all we clarify an important term to understand what these controversial elements of collecting apply to.. A postcard is a rectangular piece of thick or thin cardboard paper intended for writing and mailing without a wrapper. Other shapes of the rectangular can also be used. There are novelty exceptions, such as wooden postcards, fine wood postcards, and copper postcards sold in the copper country of the state of Michigan, and coconut “postcards” from the tropical islands.. In some places, you can send a postcard for a lower price than a letter. Stamp collectors distinguish between postcards (which require a stamp) and postcards (which have pre-printed postage on them). While a postcard is usually printed by a private company, person or organization, a postcard is issued by the corresponding postal authority.. The oldest postcard in the world was sent in 1840 to the writer Theodore Fulham’s Hook in London, England. The study and collection of postcards is called Deltiology.. Now, returning to the subject of philately:. We know as ‘philately’ the collection of stamps or other objects (such as envelopes) related to postal shipments.. The term philately was coined in 1864 by Gustave Herpin, who introduced the term in a press article in the publication ‘Le Collectionneur de timbres-poste’.. Herpin had become an authority and expert on stamps since...
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