WHEN WAS THE FIRST POSTAGE STAMP USED?
Depends what you mean by ‘postage stamp’. Personally I would say that the inventor of the first thing that could be described as a ‘postage stamp’ was William Dockwra. William Dockwra was an English merchant in business in London in the 17th century. His business partner was Robert Murray, and in 1680 they established what became known as the London Penny Post. This was a simple system that delivered letters and small parcels inside the city of London at a (prepaid) cost of one penny, using a hand stamp to frank the item, thus confirming payment. It wasn’t a separate ‘stamp’ as we think of them now though, just a franking mark applied to whatever was to be posted. However, it cannot be denied that this franking system does essentially constitute a ‘postage stamp’ in every way that matters. As far as separate stamps are concerned, then the first would be the Penny Black, first used in 1840.
