The first stamp was issued in Britain back in the early 1800’s. Sir Rowland Hill was the man who first came up with the idea of using postage stamps to prepay for postal mail. It was called the Penny Black, a picture of Queen Victoria. One had to use scissors to cut each individual square from the sheet. The next country to follow suit in using stamps to pay for postage was Brazil.

United States began issuing stamps at certain post offices in 1845 but it wasn’t until two years later before the first official stamp was issued. It wasn’t long after this that stamp collecting began. At first it was a hobby taken up by children. Adults never showed that much interest in it. However, when these children grew older they carried this passion for stamp collection into their adult years. In the late 1800’s people began really studying the postage stamps. They would publish results of their studies on these stamps after researching everything from production findings to possible printing flaws by certain plates. Establishments began to open up specifically geared towards the number of stamp collectors that were growing daily. This is when stamp collecting truly took off and is still going strong today.

Collectors found that if they were able to come across an older stamp that it would be worth much more than its face value due to the rarity of finding unused stamps in mint condition. As a result of this, they began saving stamps throughout the 1930’s in hopes of having a valuable mint stamp years later. This idea backfired because too many people had the same idea and as a result one can still find a surplus of unused, mint condition stamps from this era even today. Typically the rare stamps found today that are worth a substantial amount would be those souvenir sheets from other countries, certain plate number coils or printing mistakes.

In the beginning stamp collectors would collect stamps from every country because there really hadn’t been so many stamps issued at that time. Now there are literally millions of stamps that have been issued over time and from every country in the world. Those early collectors would sometimes affix their stamps to wallpaper as a way of displaying their collection. Of course it was hard to maintain them in mint condition that way. As stamp collecting evolved over the years, people began to look for ways to store these stamps in order to preserve them for a long period of time.

Some of the biggest most varied collections of stamps can be found in royal families, the most notable one being the British royalty. They have one of the most extensive collections of rarities especially those from Great Britain. There was a man named Philipp la Renotiere of Ferrary who was known as the one with the most extensive private stamp collection. He was wealthy and was able to hire dealers to work only for him in obtaining certain rare stamps. He was able to grow quite a sizeable collection before his death in 1917. Today those stamps have been auctioned off and there is no longer any one collection of such rare, unique stamps.
Stamp collecting can be quite an interesting topic especially if one takes the time to research the history behind some of these stamps.