| The United States Postal Service has announced that it is canceling what has amounted to a brief experiment. In this trial run, the Postal Service permitted ordinary citizens that ability to make postage stamps using the images of their dogs, their children ... and as it turned out, even infamous people like the Unabomber. Stamps.com, Inc., which is based in Santa Monica, California, and which oversaw the Photo Stamps program, has ended the service for the time being while the Postal Service re-evaluates.
Postage stamps in history:
According to several studies, the very first stamp in the world appeared in Greece in the end of 1830s & its unique copies are preserved. However, exact date of issue of Greek postage stamp cannot be established ostensibly & priority of Greece in issue of postage stamps raises doubts. According to some other information, the first stamps appeared in this country after 1828 when, according to researchers from Greece, postal reform was carried out here, to be precise, in 1831.
First postage stamp (“Penny Black”)
“Father of postage stamp” is Sir Rowland Hill (1795-1879). First in the history of postage stamps, “Penny Black”, were issued on May 6, 1840 in Great Britain.
Subsequently, World Postal Union has introduced a rule, which makes it mandatory for the countries to indicate the name of issuing country, in Latin alphabets, on the postage stamps. Great Britain - as the first country in the history of using postage stamps, was the unique country, which was exempted to follow the rule of indicating the issuer country name on postage stamp.
Special stamp is a kind of postage stamps, as a rule, meant for use during often recurring special occasions & holidays. Most popular example of such postage marks are Christmas stamps with greeting images, which in considerable quantities are used for mailing greeting cards, but number of other kinds appeared in recent years.
It is very difficult to precisely distinguish the special stamps from standard potage stamps: like standard postage stamps, these “workman stamps”, which are printed in great volumes & mainly used for mails, but at the same time, they are also dedicated to memorable events & have more attractive & meticulously worked up design. Unlike commemorative postage stamps, they are issued some weeks prior to the event, to which the stamps are meant for, so that the stamps were available during entire corresponding festive period.
Besides Christmas, special stamps were issued during other festive occasions: For a long time, Japan is already issuing New Year stamps for postcards. Many countries followed suit including USSR & Russia. Many governments are issuing postage stamps on the occasion of their Independence Day, UNO Day & other official holidays, though such postage stamps are more of commemorative stamps: citizens of these countries usually do not mail greeting cards or letters on such occasions.
Images of love stamps are devoted to love subject. In USA, love stamps were, for the first time, issued in 1973. As a rule, love stamps are issued somewhere around Valentine’s Day but such stamps are also used round the year for franking the wedding invitations, sent through mail.
Great Britain & USA issued various stamps for greeting cards with slogans, repeating standard themes of cards such as “Happy Birthday!” & “Get Well!”. It seems that such stamps did not taste success & not often cancelled stamps are found on mails.
Holiday Stamp:
Holiday stamp is a postage stamp, issued in honor of certain holiday, quite often during religious holidays. Postage stamps, connected with one or the other holiday, can become tradition in postal issues of various countries & serve for attracting consumer interest in using postal services during pre-holiday & holiday seasons. Besides, issue of holiday stamps can be specially meant for collectors, which is used by several issuing for speculative purposes.
Christian festivals on postage stamps:
Most thematic set of modern holiday stamps are made of stamps, issued on the occasion of Christian holidays. Holidays, celebrated in Christian fraternity, are widely presented on postage stamps of various countries. Holiday stamp issues are timed to widely celebrated holidays – first of all, Christmas & Easter – also for days of worship of individual saints, for example, Saint Patrick & Saint Nicholas. Some of these holidays have, recently, become more secular substance; Saint Valentine’s Day, which found reflection in the subjects of potage stamps, issued in connection with this holiday, serves as an example of such change.
Christmas stamps:
Stamps, meant for use during Christmas greetings through mails, are issued by many countries: Australia, Austria, Belarus, Brazil, Great Britain, Hungary, Haiti, Germany, Spain, Canada, Republic of Korea, Cuba, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Palestine, Russia, USA, Ukraine, Faeroes, Switzerland, etc.
Easter specially canceled & original stamp of Ukraine (part of artistically stamped envelope, 2002, № OMK80).
Number of countries issue postage stamps commemorating Easter, great Christian holiday, amongst them - Austria, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, Finland, etc.
Postage stamps commemorating Saint Valentine’s Day:
Some countries issue postage stamps, dedicated to Saint Valentine’s Day also known as Lover’s Day; the following are some of the countries, which issue stamp on Valentine’s Day: Australia, Belgium, Great Britain, Denmark, Jersey, Ireland, Korea, Mexico, Norway, Slovenia, USA, Finland, France, Ukraine, Sweden, etc. With every passing year, number of countries continues to grow, which testifies about growing popularity of stamps on this subject.
Collectors also try to collect envelopes, mailed from cities with romantic names. Probably, the most popular city, from where more than 200 000 postage mails are mailed every year on the eve of St. Valentine’s Day is Loveland, located in Colorado.
Ireland issues:
In 1985, Irish Post Office issued first pair of “love” postage stamps for use on St. Valentine’s Day – greeting cards on the eve of St. Valentine's Day. Clouds & balloon were depicted on one stamp (22 pence) & hearts & flowers on the other stamp (26 pence). New love stamps are being issued every year.
USA issues:
US Postal Service (USPS) annually, since 1973, issues postage stamps in the honor of St. Valentine’s Day. First stamp with postage paid of 8 cents (Scott #1475) was printed with circulation of 320 million stamps. Its design was developed by pop-art artist Robert Indiana.
Muslim holidays on stamps:
Stamps, dedicated to these holidays, are issued by Pakistan & other Muslim countries. From non-Muslim countries, it is necessary to note that since 2000, postage stamps on the occasion of Muslim festivals were issued in USA. |
