The Australia’s first stamps, issued in 1902, were postage due stamps. Even more oddly they borrowed the same design from colonial New South Wales postage due stamps, who borrowed the design from the first United States postage due stamps.
The first stamp catalog was published in France in 1861 by Oscar Berger-Levrault. Even though it was titled as a catalog, it was really nothing more than a dealer’s price list.
Postage rates are going up again July 1st 2022. The cost to send a 1-ounce letter will rise to 60 cents, additional ounce to 24 cents, and post cards to 44 cents. Ugh!
The British first used red cancelation ink on the Penny Black. However, they quickly discovered that the red ink was too easy to remove in order to reuse the stamps so they changed to black ink. How did that work out?
Revenue stamps known as tax paid stamps got their name from how the tax is shown paid on goods. Rather than a monetary amount of tax, the stamps show quantities of the product for which the tax was paid. Most tax paid stamps are issued by the States. A few do come from the IRS.
The USPS estimates that it is losing about $200 million a year through the use of counterfeit stamps. If one sees forever stamps or high value stamps offered anywhere at steep discounts, you can bet that they are counterfeit.
