'The Penny Black' in stamp history<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Stamps were first issued in Great Britain on May
\n6, 1840. The first two British stamps issued are known as \"The
\nPenny Black\" and each had a value of 2 pence.<\/p>\n
The idea to use stamps came from an Englishman named Sir
\nRowland Hill, in response to the ineffectiveness of the postal
\nservice at the time. Before 1840 a number of countries had
\norganized regular postal services but the mailing cost was still
\npaid in cash.<\/p>\n
The cash was to be paid by the sender before the dispatch of a
\nletter, however, there were also cases when the payment had to be
\ncovered by the addressee. Prepayment for mail did not guarantee
\nsafe delivery. As a result, people preferred to pay afterwards.
\nPost payment of mail allowed senders to take advantage of the
\nsituation by writing the news along with the address on the
\nenvelope. The addressee, having obtained the information without
\nopening the letter, refused to receive it. Therefore the charge
\ncould not be collected from the addressee. This happened so often
\nthat the British Postal Service suffered considerable losses. To
\novercome the problem it was decided that the cost of mail had to
\nbe paid by the sender.<\/p>\n
By using pieces of paper now known as stamps, the method of
\npayment for mail became more practical and simpler. It was an
\nadministrative revolution opening a new era of postal tariffing.<\/p>\n
The U.S. post office issued its first stamp in 1847. The
\nstamps had the pictures of George Washington and Benjamin
\nFranklin. Franklin was the first U.S. director general of post.
\nThen stamps were introduced by Brazil, Mauritius and Switzerland.
\nBy 1860 nearly every country had adopted stamps as a tool of
\npaying to post a letter.<\/p>\n
-- Lila Fitri Aly<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/the-penny-black-in-stamp-history-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }