History of The Postage Stamp

 

 Before the invention of the postage stamp, it was difficult to send a letter to another country. The sender paid for the letter to travel in his or her own country. Then the person in the other country paid for that part of the trip. If a letter crossed several countries, the problem was worse.
    Rowland Hill, a British teacher, had the idea of a postage stamp with glue on the back. The British post office made the first stamps in 1840. They were the Penny Black and the Twopence Blue.  A person office delivered the letter. When people received letters, they didn’t have to pay anything. The letters were prepaid.    Postage stamps became popular on Great Britain immediately. Other countries started making their own postage very quickly.     There were still problems with international mail. Some countries did not want to accept letter with stamps from another country. Finally, in 1874, a German organized the Universal Postal system. Each country in the UPS agreed to accept letters with prepaid postage from the other members. Today, the offices of the UPS are in Switzerland. Almost every country in the world is a member of this organization. It takes care of any international mail problems.