“A thin sheet of small flowery paper, with fine teeth on all sides, when friends in two places want to talk, they must ask it to be an errand boy.” The answer to this little riddle is a postage stamp, which says that stamps can be used to send letters.

However, now we have to send something, often it is WeChat email called express, many young friends may not have torn stamps and stamps to send a letter experience. So, now stamps still have the value of existence? In the end, what is the use of it?

Some friends will think that stamps are very good-looking, some friends think that stamps are collectibles will continue to rise in value, but also some friends who know stamps, will tell us that stamps are “national business cards”, “miniature encyclopedias”, is worth tasting the special works of art. These answers are all right, stamps have so many characteristics. Let’s talk briefly about the birth and development of stamps.

The birth of a stamp is not a legend

You may have heard the story, in 1836, on the outskirts of London, a girl argued with the letter carrier – “You’ve got to pay!” “I haven’t got any money, you can have the letter back, I don’t want it!” The ruckus interrupted the daily walk of Roland Hill, a local schoolteacher, who quickly stepped forward to inquire as to the cause.

The reason for the quarrel was simple: the girl could not afford the postage, for at that time postage in England was so expensive that even for well-paid laborers, the collection of a few letters could take up a month’s wages – the letters were all payable on arrival. Warm-hearted Roland Hill helped the girl to pay for the postage, but the girl was embarrassed to admit that she had actually made an appointment with her relatives to draw different codes on the envelopes to send messages, and just now she had already seen the envelopes drawn on the circle of peace, so she didn’t have to pay for the letters. Roland Hill does not like this kind of deception, but also think that the postage is really too expensive, entangled in his hard thinking, and finally proposed a prepaid postage to buy stamps as proof of payment, and then stamps on the envelope to send a letter to the program, and greatly reduce the postage, therefore, Roland Hill became the father of the stamps.

About the invention of stamps, the above paragraph may be the most widely circulated statement, also sounds very legendary, but we are, after all, the science of China, or to be realistic. The invention of the postage stamp, in fact, like many other scientific discoveries and inventions, is not someone’s bright idea, but the wisdom of the masses by a representative of the people to carry forward.

As early as 1653, someone in France invented a stamp-like nature, with a clip on the envelope of the payment ticket, 1680, someone in England invented in the envelope stamped to indicate that the postage has been paid. And in Roland Hill’s time, Austria, Scotland and other places also have a number of people put forward the idea of stamps, in addition to a number of places have been used similar to the stamps of the postage paid vouchers. Roland Hill is likely to draw on the ideas of the former, published a book “Postal Reform: Its Importance and Reality”, and later was able to start reforming the postal service of the United Kingdom at that time, and systematically promote the use of stamps, the issuance of the famous “black pence” and “red pence” stamps. The famous “black penny” and “red penny” stamps were issued.

Therefore, I am afraid we cannot say that Roland Hill invented stamps by himself, but his most important contribution was to successfully establish a whole set of postal system, so he is also honored as “the father of modern postal system”. Not long after the invention of the postage stamp, the world also introduced its own stamps, because all countries have postal needs, and at that time, the printing technology slightly adjusted to improve, but also enough to cope with the demand for early mass production of stamps.

National Business Card, Miniature Encyclopedia

The earliest postage stamps were certificates indicating that postage had been paid and were issued on behalf of the state, so at first the designs on the stamps focused on reflecting authority, often using portraits of the monarchs, heads of state, or national symbols of the time, and so on. But later, in addition to serving the postal service, stamps slowly took on a commemorative significance, such as major events, festivals or historical figures, often as the subject of stamps. Other stamps are issued to show the achievements of national development, literature and art, nature, monuments, religion and folklore, and so on.

Countries around the world in the choice of stamp content, will be carefully considered, the most representative of their own national characteristics of the content as a stamp selection, if you can be a country stamps on the allusion as a family favorite, then you must also have a considerable understanding of the country’s culture. It is no wonder that the tiny stamps, which are only a square inch in size, can hold the world and can be called “the country’s business card” and “miniature encyclopedia”.

In our country, the design of stamps need to set up a special stamp selection advisory committee to ensure that the stamps to tell the story of China, always adhere to the principle of unity of political, artistic and people’s nature, and adhere to the correct political direction. Turning to our country’s stamp issue catalog, you will find that it is the epitome of Chinese civilization and continuous historical records, and, of course, the magnificent mountains and rivers of the motherland.

And these make the stamps have a new value and meaning, but also answered the question raised at the beginning of this article, from the point of view of the use of stamps, stamps have indeed slowly faded out of everyone’s sight, but as a carrier of civilization, stamps have become more and more rich in content, printing more and more beautiful, but also with fluorescent ink, AR and other technologies, can make stamps better look, more interactive.

Discover the beauty of stamps with your own hands

However, to fully appreciate the beauty of stamps and understand the knowledge behind them, we still have to work hard. Because stamps have a characteristic of great significance and depth, but the description is too little, often a beautiful picture, with a line of text, more information and background knowledge, we are difficult to understand, and often need to consult the information in order to fully appreciate.

In addition, each year’s annual book of stamps arrives, often with content in all areas, somewhat eye-opening and not systematic enough. And many stamp-related books will systematically organize specific content stamps and write descriptions for them. For example, the 2024 Philatelic Calendar “Square Inch Heaven and Earth – China’s Famous Mountains and Rivers on Stamps” uses stamps as a medium, mountains and rivers as points, and time as a line to systematically organize and comprehensively present China’s famous mountains and rivers, festivals, festivals, and Zodiac-related stamps that have been issued, which is a rewarding experience to flip through.

To conclude, the invention of stamps is actually the crystallization of the wisdom of the masses. The stamp itself, although its use value has slowly disappeared, but its cultural value, is still bright, we want to better appreciate the stamps, they also have to check more questions, do some homework.