Before 1840, the Person Who Got the Letter Paid for It
In Britain before 1840, the charge for a letter was normally paid by the person who received it. The price depended on how far the letter travelled and how many sheets of paper it contained[1]. Prices were not small: one account says the cost could be more than a working family’s day of pay[5].
Because the receiver paid, the receiver also had a choice. People could turn a letter away, and the post office, having already carried it, got nothing[2]. The system was also open to what one history calls “abuse and corruption,” and some people, such as Members of Parliament, had the right to send and receive a number of letters free (“free franking”)[2][1].
Carrying a letter all the way and then not being paid is the puzzle behind the stamp. What would you change first?
Rowland Hill’s Plan: One Low Price, Paid by the Sender
Rowland Hill was a teacher and reformer who thought the system was too complicated. In 1837 he published a pamphlet called Post Office Reform: its Importance and Practicability. His main argument was that the charge should be low and the same for every letter, whatever the distance[1]. In 1838 he put this to Parliament as one penny per half ounce (about 14 grams) for a letter anywhere in the British Isles[2].
The second half of the plan was to move the payment to the sender. If the sender paid before the letter left, nobody at the door could turn it away to avoid paying.
Here is a surprise. The first version of that plan was not a stamp as we know it. Hill’s pamphlet suggested that the public be supplied with covers and sheets of paper already stamped by the Stamp Office or Post Office[4]. The “bit of paper just large enough to bear the stamp, and covered at the back with a glutinous wash” appears, in the account I read, as an almost passing remark Hill made earlier in 1837 to a commission, for someone who could not pay in cash[4][5]. The idea that became the world’s first stamp began, in that account, as a side comment.
How Britain Chose a Way to Show That Postage Was Paid
Hill’s plan needed some visible proof of payment on each letter. In 1839 the Treasury asked artists, scientists and the public for ideas, and about 2,600 suggestions came in for ways to prepay postage[3]. Even so, a book about stamp history reports that in July 1839 the Chancellor of the Exchequer said that “no mortal being” yet knew how penny postage was to be carried out[4]. The government’s decision to use the adhesive stamp came late: a Treasury Minute of December 26, 1839, according to that book[4].
After that the work was quick. One museum summary says the classic design took about five months from idea to issue[3]. The image of the young Queen Victoria came from a medal made by William Wyon in 1837[3].
What Changed in 1840: A Penny, Anywhere in Britain
Uniform penny postage began in January 1840[1]. The first stamp, the Penny Black, went on sale in London on May 1, 1840, and became valid for postage on May 6[3]. A penny (the old British coin, worth 1/240 of a pound) paid for a letter up to half an ounce, whether it went across town or across the country[3].
A sheet held 240 stamps, as many as there were pennies in a pound[3]. There was no row of holes between them, so you cut each stamp out with scissors[6]. More than 68 million were printed in all[3].
People did use the new system. One history says the number of letters sent in the United Kingdom more than doubled in the first year of Penny Post[2]. Cheap postage, paid by the sender, and a stamp as proof fit together as one idea.
Look at a Stamp Edge and Spot What Has Changed
Find an old envelope, a postcard, or a stamp from a package. Look at the edge of the stamp. If it has small holes (perforations), it is easy to tear. The Penny Black had none, so you needed scissors.
Then look for the price. The sender paid it before the letter left, and nobody at the other end had to decide whether to accept it. That small change is the idea this whole story is about.
Sources
Pages [1] and [3] are from The Postal Museum, a UK museum; I read their text. Page [2] is Wikipedia, used for the 1838 proposal wording, the refusal point and the letter count, none of which I could confirm in a museum page. Page [4] is a stamp-history book from the early 1900s (on Project Gutenberg; I read it through a page summary, not line by line) and is the only place I found the December 1839 date and Hill’s earlier remarks, so treat those as less certain. Page [5] is a short Victorian Web overview, and page [6] is Wikipedia again, for the missing perforations. I did not read Hill’s pamphlet itself. Some sources give Hill’s penny rate as per ounce and others per half ounce; the half-ounce figure is what the Penny Black launched with and what Hill’s 1838 proposal quoted.
- The Postal Museum, “Rowland Hill’s postal reforms.” https://staging1.postalmuseum.org/?p=36398 (who paid before 1840, rates by distance and sheets, free franking, uniform penny postage on January 10, 1840)
- Wikipedia, “Uniform Penny Post.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Penny_Post (refusal of letters, 1838 wording of the penny per half ounce, letters doubling; secondary source)
- The Postal Museum, “The first ever stamp: the Penny Black.” https://staging1.postalmuseum.org/?p=24603 (May 1 and May 6, 1840; penny for half an ounce; 240 per sheet; about 2,600 competition entries; over 68 million printed; Wyon medal; five months from concept to issue)
- Patrick Chalmers, The Adhesive Postage Stamp, Project Gutenberg. https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/39569/pg39569-images.html (stamped covers in the pamphlet, the “bit of paper” remark, July 1839 quotation, December 26, 1839 Treasury Minute; early-1900s secondary source)
- Victorian Web, an overview of Hill’s Penny Post. https://victorianweb.org/technology/letters/hill.html (cost compared with a day’s wages; the “bit of paper” quotation)
- Wikipedia, “Penny Black.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black (no perforations, cut with scissors; secondary source)
Update history
- First published.