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First Day Covers
History
It is generally an accepted fact that the world's
first postage stamp was issued by England, the effort of Rowland Hill.
However, it is interesting to note that even before this, attempts
were made to introduce some form of stamps. As early as the 17th
Century, stamps were introduced in Paris. Senders of letters at that
time could buy special rectangles of papers with the wording "Port
paye lell" and paste the paper on to the letter which will then be
forwarded to its destination. However, there was dissatisfaction on
rate calculation - rates for letters sent by horseback, by coach etc.
This problem was further aggravated by workers involved who resorted
to cheat and thus this system failed. In Austria it is reported that a
postmaster named Eggarter had introduced stamps in his post office
even before Rowland Hill. Unfortunately Eggarter did not get official
approval and further there was no documented evidence. Thus, years
later when a letter bearing an "Eggarter Stamp" was found, authorities
thought them counterfeit.
In the 1830s the Englishman, Rowland Hill who was later to become the
Postmaster General, sent in his proposal for the introduction of
stamps. Rowland Hill himself drew the design for the proposed stamps
together with his proposal entitled, "Post Office Reform: Its
importance and practicability", for uniform postage rates based on
weight throughout Great Britain.
The first stamp, a black known as the Penny Black was issued on May 6,
1840 together with a blue version of the same design. As the design
did not bear the name of England, the issuing country, the tradition
has been maintained till now where the name of the country does not
appear on stamps issued by England. From then on, other counties
started to print stamps - Europe after this and the United States of
America in 1847. The first stamps, issued in Malaysia was in 1867. A
detailed list of the history of stamps in Malaysia is as follows :-
So what is philately? Philately can be described as the collecting and
arranging of postal material i.e. postage stamps, postal routes,
letters, covers and other material. This collection, be it stamps,
covers etc. are usually documented to trace major historical events
and other events
It cannot be established when philately first started as a hobby as
there is no known documentation. However, it can be ascertained that
philately only started after the introduction of the postage stamp in
1840.
It is also known that stamps were first used to decorate walls, lamps
shades etc. in England. In the 1850s it was common to see
advertisements in London newspapers requesting for a large amount of
colored stamps for papering a bedroom.
Collection of stamps to be pasted on walls tapered off when a more
advanced approach was made to collect stamps by, using albums. The
first album was produced in England in 1852. Thus, when more postage
stamps became available, the hobby of collecting stamps became quite
common. More people began to take an interest in stamp collecting and
philately began to develop. Many serious collectors emerged and one of
the world's largest and oldest stamp collections is owned by the Queen
of England. DYTM Raja Muda of Selangor is also reputed to have a good
collection.
The word "philately" is said to have been coined in France in 1864 by
Georges Herpin. It is from two Greek words : "philos" meaning loving
and "llateleiall" meaning free of payment. Originally philately was
more confined to the study of labels, representing payment for postal
services. From here its area was widened to include the study of the
systematic collection of postage stamps, postcards, postal covers,
postmarks and other postal material.
From its humble beginnings, philately has become very advanced and is
now categorized into various branches e.g. postal history, postal
stationery and aero philately which is the study of all aspects of
airmail. Philately has become so advanced that many people tend to
limit their collections to thematic collections, complete collections
of a particular country and also classics - stamps issued in the late
1800's.
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