About Postage Stamps

NEPAL

The first stamp issue of Nepal dates from April 1881. The design features the Crown of Nepal (a jeweled, feathered headdress) and a pair of Khukris. The inscriptions, in Devanagari script reads: "Shri Gorkha" and "Sarkar" which can be translated as "Government of Nepal". Used postally and telegraphically for almost 50 years, they are known as the "Classic Stamps of Nepal".

History of World

Postage stamps were first introduced in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in May 1840 as part of the postal reforms promoted by Rowland Hill. With its introduction the postage fee was now to be paid by the sender and not the recipient as heretofore, though sending mail prepaid was not a requirement. The first postage stamp, the Penny Black, first issued on the 1st of May for use from May 6, and two days later, the Two pence blue, with an engraving of the young Queen Victoria, were an immediate success though refinements, like perforations were instituted with later issues.
Other countries followed suit by introducing their own postage stamps; the Canton of Zürich in Switzerland issued the Zurich 4 and 6 rappen; although the Penny Black could be used to send any letter weighing less than 15 grams within the United Kingdom, the Swiss postage still calculated mail rates based on the distance travelled. Brazil issued the Bull's Eyes stamps in the 1843, using the same printer as that used for the Penny Black the Brazilian government opted for an abstract design instead of an image of emperor Pedro II in order that his image would be not disfigured by the postmark. In 1845 some postmasters in the USA issued their own stamps, but the first officially issued stamps came in 1847, with the 5 and 10 cent stamps depicting Benjami Franklin and George Washington. A few other countries issued stamps in the late 1840s, but many more, such as India, started in the 1850s and by the 1860s most countries of the world had issued postage stamps.
Following the introduction of the postage stamp in the United Kingdom the number of letters mailed increased from 82 million in 1839 to 170 million in 1841. Today an average of 21 billion items are delivered by post every year in the UK alone.

Some Famous Stamps

1.Penny Black

The Penny Black, the world's first official adhesive postage stamp, was issued by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 May 1840, for use from 6 May. Although all London post offices received official issues of the new stamps, other offices throughout the United Kingdom did not, and continued to accept postage payments in cash only for some time. Post offices in some other localities, such as those in the city of Bath, began offering the stamp unofficially after 2 May.

In 1839, the British Treasury had announced a competition to design the new stamps, but none of the submissions were considered suitable, and the Treasury chose instead to use a profile of Queen Victoria. The head was engraved by Charles and Fredrick Heath based on a sketch provided by Henry Cole. Cole's sketch was in turn based on the head by William Wyon, that had been done for a medal used to commemorate the visit of Queen Victoria to the City of London in the year she ascended the throne, 1837. The word "POSTAGE" appeared at the top of the stamp, to denote its intended use (revenue stamps had long been used in the UK) and "ONE PENNY" at the bottom, indicating the amount that had been pre-paid for the transmission of the letter to which it was affixed. The background consisted of finely engraved engine turnings. In addition, the two upper corners contained star like designs and the lower corners contained letters designating the position of each stamp in the sheet, "A A", "A B", and so forth. As the name suggests, the stamp was printed all in black. The stamps were printed by Perkins Bacon.

2. Blue Penny

The "Post Office" Mauritius postage stamps are amongst the rarest and most valuable stamps in the world. They are also known as the Blue Penny and the Red Penny.
Their value is due to two factors — they were the first stamps of the British Empire to be produced outside the United Kingdom and in their initial issue were printed with the wrong wording. They are therefore even rarer than they would have been had they been printed correctly.
Two stamps were issued, a red one penny (1d) and a blue two penny (2d). 1500 of each were issued from the first print run on 20 September 1847, many of which were used on invitations sent out by the Mauritian Governor's wife for a ball which she was holding that weekend.
The quirk of these stamps was that they had "Post Office" rather than the more conventional "Post Paid" printed on the side. Later print runs had "Post Paid" and any existing stamps from the original run can therefore easily be identified and authenticated. There is a traditional story which seeks to explain why the stamps were incorrectly worded, which has recently been challenged by philatelists.
The few surviving stamps are mainly in the hands of private collectors but they are on public display in the British Library in London, including the envelope of an original invitation to the Governor's ball complete with stamp. Another place where it can be seen is at the Blue Penny Museum in Mauritius. The two stamps also can be seen at the Museum for Communication (Museum fur Kommunikation) in Berlin.

3.Treskilling Yellow

The "Treskilling" Yellow, or 3 skilling banco error of color, is a postage stamp of Sweden, and as of 2004 the most valuable stamp in the world. At a price of $71 billion USD per kilogram as of 1998 it is one of the most valuable things in the world by weight and by volume. In 1855, Sweden issued its first postage stamps, a set of five depicting the Swedish coat of arms, with denominations ranging from 3 to 24 skillings banco. The 3-skilling banco value was normally printed in a blue-green color, while the 8-skilling was printed in a yellowish orange shade. It is not known exactly what went wrong, but the most likely explanation is that a cliché of the 8-skilling printing plate (which consisted of 100 clichés assembled into a 10 x 10 array) was damaged or broken, and mistakenly replaced with a 3-skilling cliché. The number of stamps printed in the wrong color is unknown.

Somehow, this error went entirely unnoticed at the time, and by 1858 the currency was changed. The skilling stamps were replaced by new stamps denominated in öre. In 1886, a young collector named Georg Wilhelm Baeckman was going through covers in his grandmother's attic, and came across one with a 3-skilling stamp, for which local dealer Heinrich Lichtenstein was offering 7 kronor apiece.

4. The Inverted Jenny

The inverted Jenny (or Jenny Invert) is a United States postage stamp of 1918 in which the image of the Curtiss JN-4 airplane in the center of the design was accidentally printed upside-down; it is probably the most famous error in American philately. Only 100 of the inverts were ever found, making this error one of the most prized in all philately; an inverted Jenny was sold at a Robert A. Siegel auction in June 2005 for US$525,000. A block of four inverted Jennys was also sold at a Robert A. Siegel auction in October 2005 for US$2.7m.

5. Inverted Head 4 Annas

The Inverted Head Four Annas of India is a famous stamp prized by collectors. The 1854 first issues of India included a Four Annas value in red and blue. However, an error occurred during production, showing the head "upside down." This is one of the world's first multicolored stamps; the Basel Dove preceded it by 9 years.
The Four Annas stamps were lithographed by the Survey Office in Calcutta. Two colors were used, red for the frame and blue for the head. During production, the paper was first imprinted with the red frames and later the blue heads were superimposed within the frames. The First Printing began on October 13, 1854, using Head Die I and Frame Die I. There were 12 widely spaced stamps in each sheet. Exactly 206,040 stamps were printed from this Head Die I issue.

6. Basel Dove

The Basel Dove (German Basler Taube) is a notable stamp issued by the Swiss canton of Basel. It was issued on 1 July 1845 with a value of 2 1/2-rappen. At the time each canton was responsible for its own postal service. There were no uniform postal rates for Switzerland until after the establishment of a countrywide postal service on 1 January 1849. The only other cantons to issue their own stamps were Zürich and Geneva.
The stamp, designed by the architect Melchior Berry, featured a white dove carrying a letter in its beak, and was inscribed "STADT POST BASEL". The stamp is printed in black, crimson, and blue, making it the world's first tri-colored stamp. The dove is embossed.
The stamp was not valid for use after 30 September 1854, by which time 41,480 stamps had been printed. Collectors need to be aware that several forgeries have been circulated.

7. Gronchi Rosa

The Gronchi Rosa is a rare Italian postage stamp design error. It was part of a 1961 issue for the voyage of president Giovanni Gronchi to three South American countries.
The 205 liras rosa was intended for the stopover in Peru. The artist made a mistake with the boundaries between Peru and Brazil. The stamp was quickly replaced by a grey version with corrected boundaries, but some philatelic souvenirs using the Gronchi Rosa already existed. A forgery of this stamp is known to exist