PHILATELY. Postage stamps afford a simple and effective means of collecting fees paid, or required to be paid, for the trans mission of matter sent by post. In 1653 the petite poste (local post) in Paris set up by M. (afterwards Comte) de Villayer, as a private enterprise, but with royal sanction, sold letter-covers or wrappers bearing a distinctive mark, at two sous (one penny) each. Letters enclosed in such wrappers and dropped in letter boxes, were collected and delivered by laquais (footmen), who removed the wrappers on delivery. These wrappers were the first printed franks, comparable to the stamped envelopes and covers of modern times. In 1818 stamped sheets of paper served to collect a tax (not postage) on correspondence in Sardinia. Lieut. C. G. Treffenberg proposed stamped wrappers for the pre payment of postage in Sweden in 1823, but the plan was not adopted. Kindred proposals made in Great Britain (183o-39) prepared the way for the adoption of stamps to serve for the collection of postage under Rowland Hill's uniform postage plan in 184o. Two years in advance of Great Britain New South Wales issued embossed letter sheets, for penny local letters, and sold them at Is. 3d. a dozen; they were not popular even when reduced to is. a dozen.
Introduction of Postage two kinds of stamps issued in Great Britain in 184o were: (I) A stamped envelope or wrapper bearing a design by Wm. Mulready R.A., (2) adhe sive postage stamps, small rectangles of paper, with the device of the queen's head, backed with gum. The Mulready covers and the id. and 2d. adhesive postage stamps all came into use on May 6, 1840; some were sold on May 1, but they were not authorized for use before May 6. By May 12, Rowland Hill recognized that the covers were not in great demand. Stocks of the Mulready envelopes and letter-sheets were withdrawn and destroyed when new and simpler envelopes and sheets bearing the embossed stamp of the queen's head were issued in 1841.
Adhesive postage stamps, owing to their small size and great variety, are the chief interest of the stamp-collector. The id.
black and 2d. blue stamps of Great Britain, 184o, bear a design in. wide by in. high, printed from engraved steel plates. The queen's head was drawn by Henry Corbould from Wm. Wyon's "City Medal." The engraving of this on steel was entrusted to Charles Heath, but was probably executed by his son Frederick Heath. The die was transferred to steel plates, each of 24o repe titions, and from these plates, Perkins, Bacon and Petch, after ward Perkins, Bacon and Co. Ltd., printed the stamps. The
addition of perforations is due to an Irish inventor, Henry Archer, in The two stamps were subjected to changes in 1841, the id. being then printed in red instead of black, as the black stamps did not afford sufficient safeguard against the removal of postmarks. The change in the 2d. blue consisted in the introduction of un coloured lines under the words "postage" and "twopence." Spread of the Stamp System.—Britain's first stamps attracted attention abroad, but a considerable period elapsed before the system was adopted extensively. A private "City Despatch Post" of New York, conducted by an Englishman, Henry T. Windsor, issued a 3 cent stamp in 1842. The Swiss cantons of Zurich and Geneva, and Brazil followed in 1843. The first Geneva stamp was a divisible one, the whole being used on cantonal letters (io centimes) and the half for local postage within one com mune. Brazil's first stamps, known to collectors as "bulls-eyes" (the designs are elliptical), bear large numerals of value, pro posals to use the effigy of Dom Pedro being abandoned as it was thought obliterating the portrait would show a want of respect for that sovereign. The canton of Basle, and several postmasters in the United States issued stamps in 1845. The postmasters of New York and St. Louis issued adhesive stamps for the con venience of their customers, and to increase their incomes (which depended on postage collections) ; the postmaster of New Haven, Connecticut, issued stamped envelopes. Other postmasters followed their example before the U.S. Government issued postage stamps in 1847. Some of the "postmasters' stamps" are of the greatest rarity, notably those of Alexandria, Va., Annapolis, Md., Baltimore, Md., Boscawen, N.H., Brattleboro, Vt., Lockport, N.Y., Millbury, Mass., New Haven, Conn., and St. Louis, Mo. In 1847 the first British colony to follow England's lead was Mauritius, where a local watchmaker engraved the earliest stamps on the back of a small copper plate, which had been used as an advertisement card for a local hotel. Those were the id. orange red and 2d. blue stamps lettered "Post Office" at the left side, and bearing the effigy of the queen; fewer than 3o copies of the two stamps are known. The United States issued its first govern mental postage stamps on July I, 1847 ; the 5 cent stamp bore the effigy of Franklin, and the Io cent that of Washington.