Dear reader,
For over 180 years, a wafer-thin piece of paper has played a surprisingly colossal role in shaping the world. The humble postage stamp, beyond its practical purpose of prepaying mail, has been a silent chronicler of history, a canvas for national pride, and even a mischievous tool for propaganda.
As some of you might know, prior to the 1840s, sending a letter was a gamble. Or even a nightmare. Postage was calculated by distance and number of sheets, and recipients often ended up paying exorbitant fees. The recipient, not the sender, often bore the cost, leading to arguments and rejected deliveries. Enter a British schoolmaster, Sir Rowland Hill (1795-1879). Hill wasn’t your typical revolutionary. By day, he was a schoolmaster with a passion for education reform. But his frustration with the snail-paced, ridiculously expensive postal system propelled him into becoming the father of the modern postal service.
Legend has it that the sight of a poor woman refusing a delivered letter due to the cost of postage sparked Hill’s outrage. Hill’s solution was as simple as it was ingenious: a uniform penny postage rate based on weight, prepaid by the sender. He tirelessly campaigned for his idea, publishing a pamphlet titled “Post Office Reform” in 1837. The establishment, however, wasn’t convinced. They worried about forgery and a drop in revenues.
Here’s where things get interesting. While pondering prepayment solutions, Hill initially proposed stamped envelopes. But a printer named James Chalmers suggested a small adhesive label which Hill readily adopted (the invention of the world’s first adhesive stamp is actually a widely debated matter, but for the sake of brevity and convenience let’s stick to this version). Thus the iconic Penny Black, featuring a profile of Queen Victoria, was born in 1840, forever changing how we communicate.
Hill’s reforms were a giant success. Mail volume skyrocketed, communication boomed, and the government even saw increased revenue. Hill, finally recognised for his genius, was knighted by Queen Victoria and became a national hero. Rowland Hill’s legacy extends far beyond the Penny Black. His vision of a cheap, efficient, and accessible postal system became the blueprint for postal services around the globe.
Interestingly, the Penny Black wasn’t just a marvel of convenience; it was a cornerstone of nation-building. Queen Victoria’s stern visage on the stamp served as a constant reminder of the vast British Empire the mail traversed. Soon, stamps became miniature ambassadors. New nations declared their independence by featuring their own landscapes, flora, and fauna. Tiny island nations, like Nauru, with limited resources, used vibrantly coloured stamps to attract tourism and collectors, their postage functioning as a miniature marketing campaign.
Propaganda also found a home on these tiny canvases. During World War I, countries depicted soldiers valiantly charging into battle but omitted the grim realities. The Soviet Union used stamps to glorify its achievements in space exploration, while the US countered with images of astronauts planting their flag on the moon.
The stamp held significant political influence, as demonstrated during the American Civil War when Confederate states seized government property, including post offices stocked with stamps. To prevent the enemy from profiting, the Union recalled all issued US stamps and deemed them unusable for postage. Instead, people exchanged old stamps for newly printed ones.
During periods of inflation, affixing enough stamps for postage became increasingly difficult. In extreme cases, in Sweden for instance, extensive lengths of paper were needed to accommodate the necessary number of stamps! Germany even suspended stamp requirements temporarily, opting for cash payments at post offices instead.
There’s also the story of how a postage stamp may have helped create the Panama Canal. In 1902, French engineer Philippe Bunau-Varilla influenced the US Congress’ decision on a canal route through Panama instead of Nicaragua by strategically distributing Nicaraguan postage stamps featuring a smoking volcano (Momotombo), implying the threat it posed to the alternative route through Nicaragua.
In 1919, facing scarcity after wartime destruction, Latvia creatively used the backs of German military maps and unfinished banknotes for its first national stamps. These stamps, when examined closely, reveal traces of the maps used during World War I. Self-adhesive stamps, like those introduced by Tonga in the 1960s, revolutionised postage with their unconventional shapes and getting rid of the need for licking. These stamps proved immensely popular, sparking a global trend towards peel-and-stick stamps that persists today. Clearly, the history of stamps is filled with intrigue, violence, and laughter: it has the strange, the bizarre, the nonsensical, and the wondrous!
Back in India, the region saw its first stamp in 1852. According to India Post, these circular stamps were individually embossed onto paper and had the words “Scinde District Dawk” (postal system of runners serving Sindh region, now in Pakistan) printed around the rim and the East India Company’s Merchant’s Mark as the central emblem. The First Stamp of independent India was issued on November 21, 1947. It depicts the Indian Flag with Jai Hind (Long Live India) in the top right-hand corner, valued at three and one-half annas. In India, as elsewhere, stamps have captured poignant moments in history. They have served as tools for national integration and literacy campaigns, they instil patriotism, celebrate inclusivity, empower women, reflect wars, and more.
This election season, read Vikas Kumar’s insightful article “Elections on postage: A journey into history” which shows how stamps played a vital role in building election awareness in India. Kumar, an avid philatelic historian, has previously written for Frontline. You will find his articles here.
In today’s digital world, postage stamps may seem like relics of the past, but their legacy endures. They are not mere scraps of paper but tiny time capsules that offer glimpses into a nation’s history, culture, and even its sense of humour. They testify to the enduring power of human connection, facilitated by a simple yet ingenious invention.
So, why don’t you send us a letter on snail mail this time, adorned with a lovely India Post stamp? We are at Frontline, Kasturi Buildings, 859-860, Anna Salai, Chennai - 600002.
Waiting for your mail and wishing you a lovely week ahead,
For Team Frontline,
Jinoy Jose P.
We hope you’ve been enjoying our newsletters featuring a selection of articles that we believe will be of interest to a cross-section of our readers. Tell us if you like what you read. And also, what you don’t like! Mail us at frontline@thehindu.co.in
