A pivotal part of the mail industry Skymail Participates in that is essential to our business comes from something no bigger than an inch in diameter. Postage stamps are something that everyday people rarely have to think about, but for Skymail, it’s a daily occurrence. In fact, we have to think about it thousands of times a day. Since Skymail uses so many postage stamps, here are a few Image displaying the very first 'modern' postage stamp named the Penny Black.factoids that surround the world of stamps and a brief look at their history.

Postage stamps are a versatile thing, some find them solely to be a means of paying to send mail, some enjoy studying their storied history (philately), and some find them to be collectables. Some stamps are so sought after that in 2014 a stamp called The British Guiana One- Cent Magenta was sold for a whopping 9.48 MILLION dollars at an auction house. Even more surprising, four stamps have been sold for over 1 million dollars. For a more complete list and details, check out the 10 most expensive stamps here! These stamp and many others are so sought after and can be sold for so much due to the long history that postage stamps carry.

The first postage stamp created that most closely resembles today’s stamps was first proposed by Rowland Hill in 1835. These stamps that were based on mail weight would take hold and would be soon picked up by countries all across the world. From Rowland Hills concept of stamps came the world’s first ‘modern’ postage stamp called the Penny Black. It was first issued in Great Britain on May 1st 1840 and featured an image of Queen Victoria. From the Penny Black countries all around the world followed suite and adopted a similar style and design. AT first, all postage stamps basicUS postage stamp of a bio-luminescent jellyfish. designed were rectangular in shape and showed an image of a high ranking political figure, but soon they stared depicting other objects such as . In the United States, the first official postage stamp was issued in 1847- a 5 cent postage stamp displaying Benjamin Franklin and a 10 cent postage stamp displaying George Washington. Since then, the United States Post Office has issued over 13,000 stamps displaying a wide array of images from jellyfish to space shuttles.

Little things like postage stamps are often overlooked in life. Sometimes it’s nice to notice these things and do a bit of research just to see where the rabbit hole goes. More often than not mountains of information and a rich history of origin wait. Since the concept of mail there has been a need for postage stamps. One really wouldn’t be the same without the other. For over 180 years postage stamps have been used globally to simplify the process of mail delivery. As frequent stamp users, Skymail urges you to take a look around at the simple things in life that makes it easier and do a bit of investigating. You never know what type of past an object may hold.