Editing Postage stamp (section)

== Invention ==
Throughout [[modern history]] numerous methods were used to indicate that postage had been paid on a mailed item, so several different men have received credit for inventing the postage stamp.

=== William Dockwra ===
In April 1680, [[William Dockwra]], an English searcher at the customs-house in [[London]], and his partner [[Robert Murray (financier)|Robert Murray]] established the [[London Penny Post]].<ref name=EB1911>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Post, and Postal Service |volume=22 |page=178 |first=Thomas Allan |last=Ingram}}</ref> The LPP was a mail system that delivered letters and small parcels up to a pound in weight and £10 in value inside the city of London for the sum of one penny.<ref name=EB1911/> Confirmation of paid postage was indicated by the use of a hand ''stamp'' to frank the mailed item. Though this "stamp" was applied to the letter or parcel itself, rather than to a separate piece of paper, it is considered by many historians to be the world's first postage stamp.<ref name="William Dockwra and the Penny Post Service">{{cite web|url=http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/cpm/chrono/ch1680ae.shtml|title=William Dockwra and the Penny Post Service|publisher=Canadian Museum of Civilization|access-date=8 November 2010|archive-date=1 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201224919/http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/cpm/chrono/ch1680ae.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Lovrenc Košir ===
[[File:Lovrenc Košir.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Lovrenc Košir, 1870s]]
In 1835, the civil servant [[Lovrenc Košir]] from [[Ljubljana]] in [[Austria-Hungary]] (now [[Slovenia]]), suggested the use of "artificially affixed postal tax stamps"<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110501020540/http://newissues.stanleygibbons.com/include/content_stampdetails.asp?id=1671%2F04_may1a "New Issues: Technical Details: Lovrenc Košir"] ''Stanley Gibbons'', archived on 10 May 2011 by [[Internet Archive]]</ref> using "gepresste Papieroblate" ("pressed paper wafers"), but although civil bureaucrats considered the suggestion in detail, it was not adopted.<ref>[http://www.stampdomain.com/stamp_invention/kosir.htm Lovrenc Košir] stampdomain.com 2012. Retrieved 1 March 2012. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110319043610/http://www.stampdomain.com/stamp_invention/kosir.htm Archived here.]</ref><ref>"Meet the new Rowland Hill" in [[Gibbons Stamp Monthly]], April 1949, p. 85</ref> The 'Papieroblate' were to produce stamps as paper [[decal]]s so thin as to prevent their reuse.<ref>A History of Victorian Postage by Gerard Cheshire, 2017, {{ISBN|1445664380}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=F2AuDwAAQBAJ&dq=papieroblate+-wikipedia&pg=PT103] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221228151751/https://books.google.com/books?id=F2AuDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT103&lpg=PT103&dq=papieroblate+-wikipedia&source=bl&ots=0CQogjYWlI&sig=ACfU3U0_7ZJmXYhOds2ROKmdvriwVIajVQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwil7aSc2f7mAhW1HzQIHTIPAQQQ6AEwBnoECAUQAQ#v=onepage&q=papieroblate%20-wikipedia&f=false|date=28 December 2022}}</ref>

=== Rowland Hill ===
[[File:Rowland Hill photo crop.jpg|thumb|upright|Rowland Hill]]
In 1836, [[Robert Wallace (MP for Greenock)|Robert Wallace]], a Member of (British) Parliament, gave Sir [[Rowland Hill]] numerous books and documents about the postal service, which Hill described as a "half [[Hundredweight|hundred weight]] of material".<ref>The Life of Sir Rowland Hill, p. 246</ref><ref>Hill, Rowland & Hill, George Birkbeck, ''The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the History of the Penny Post'', Thomas De La Rue, 1880, p. 242</ref> After a detailed study, on 4 January 1837 Hill submitted a pamphlet entitled ''Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability'' to the [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]], [[Thomas Spring Rice, 1st Baron Monteagle of Brandon|Thomas Spring Rice]], which was marked "private and confidential", and not released to the general public.<ref>Muir, Douglas N, ''Postal Reform & the Penny Black'', National Postal Museum, 1990, p. 42</ref> The Chancellor summoned Hill to a meeting at which he suggested improvements and changes to be presented in a supplement, which Hill duly produced and submitted on 28 January 1837.<ref>The Life of Sir Rowland Hill, p. 264</ref>

Summoned to give evidence before the Commission for Post Office Enquiry on 13 February 1837, Hill read from the letter he wrote to the Chancellor that included a statement saying that the notation of paid postage could be created... by using a bit of paper just large enough to bear the stamp, and covered at the back with a glutinous wash..."<ref>The Life of Sir Rowland Hill, p. 269</ref><ref>''The Ninth Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Management of the Post-office Department'', 1837, p. 32</ref> This would eventually become the first unambiguous description of a modern adhesive postage stamp (though the term "postage stamp" originated at a later date). Shortly afterward, Hill's revision of the booklet, dated 22 February 1837, containing some 28,000 words, incorporating the supplement given to the Chancellor and statements he made to the commission, was published and made available to the general public. Hansard records that on 15 December 1837, [[Benjamin Hawes]] asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer "whether it was the intention of the Government to give effect to the recommendation of the Commissioners of the Post-office, contained in their ninth report relating to the reduction of the rates of postage, and the issuing of penny stamps?"<ref>{{cite web| url = https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1837/dec/15/post-office#column_1116,| title = Hansard, 15 December 1837| access-date = 18 October 2020| archive-date = 18 October 2020| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201018213438/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1837/dec/15/post-office#column_1116,| work = [[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]| date = 15 December 1837| url-status = live}}</ref>

Hill's ideas for postage stamps and charging paid-postage based on weight soon took hold, and were adopted in many countries throughout the world.<ref name="postal revolutionary"/> With the new policy of charging by weight, using envelopes for mailing documents became the norm. Hill's brother Edwin invented a prototype envelope-making machine that folded paper into envelopes quickly enough to match the pace of the growing demand for postage stamps.<ref name="British Postal Museum & Archive">{{cite web| url = http://postalheritage.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/rowland-hill%E2%80%99s-postal-reforms/| title = The British Postal Museum & Archive, Rowland Hill's Postal Reforms| access-date = 14 September 2010| archive-date = 24 December 2014| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141224185335/http://postalheritage.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/rowland-hill%e2%80%99s-postal-reforms/| url-status = live}}</ref>

Rowland Hill and the reforms he introduced to the United Kingdom postal system appear on several of its commemorative stamps.<ref name="British Postal Museum & Archive"/>

=== James Chalmers ===
In the 1881 book ''The Penny Postage Scheme of 1837'', Scotsman Patrick Chalmers claimed that his father, [[James Chalmers (inventor)|James Chalmers]], published an essay in August 1834 describing and advocating a postage stamp, but submitted no evidence of the essay's existence. Nevertheless, until he died in 1891, Patrick Chalmers campaigned to have his father recognized as the inventor of the postage stamp.<ref>Chalmers, Patrick, ''The Penny Postage Scheme of 1837'', Effingham Wilson, 1881</ref>

The first independent evidence for Chalmers' claim is an essay, dated 8 February 1838 and received by the Post Office on 17 February 1838, in which he proposed adhesive postage stamps to the [[General Post Office]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://postalheritage.org.uk/collections/archive/stamps/phillips/VolI/Vol_I_pg_005/Vol_I_pg_005/image|title=James Chalmers essay of 1837|access-date=11 November 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110513064406/http://postalheritage.org.uk/collections/archive/stamps/phillips/VolI/Vol_I_pg_005/Vol_I_pg_005/image|archive-date=13 May 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> In this approximately 800-word document concerning methods of indicating that postage had been paid on mail he states:

{{quote|Therefore, of Mr Hill's plan of a uniform rate of postage... I conceive that the most simple and economical mode... would be by Slips... in the hope that Mr Hill's plan may soon be carried into operation I would suggest that sheets of Stamped Slips should be prepared... then be rubbed over on the back with a strong solution of gum...}}

Chalmers' original document is now in the United Kingdom's National Postal Museum.

Since Chalmers used the same postage denominations that Hill had proposed in February 1837, it is clear that he was aware of Hill's proposals, but whether he obtained a copy of Hill's booklet or simply read about it in one or both of the two detailed accounts (25 March 1837<ref>''The Times'', 25 March 1837</ref> and 20 December 1837<ref>''The Times'', 20 December 1837</ref>) published in ''[[The Times]]'' is unknown. Neither article mentioned "a bit of paper just large enough to bear the stamp", so Chalmers could not have known that Hill had made such a proposal. This suggests that either Chalmers had previously read Hill's booklet and was merely elaborating Hill's idea, or he had independently developed the idea of the modern postage stamp.

James Chalmers organized petitions "for a low and uniform rate of postage". The first such petition was presented in the House of Commons on 4 December 1837 (from Montrose).<ref>{{cite web| url = https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1837/dec/04/minutes#S3V0039P0_18371204_HOC_2| title = Hansard 4 Dec 1837| access-date = 11 November 2009| archive-date = 2 July 2009| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090702154935/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1837/dec/04/minutes#S3V0039P0_18371204_HOC_2| work = [[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]| date = 4 December 1837| url-status = live}}</ref> Further petitions which he organized were presented on 1 May 1838 (from Dunbar and Cupar), 14 May 1838 (from the county of Forfar), and 12 June 1839. At this same time, other groups organized petitions and presented them to Parliament. All petitions for consumer-oriented, low-cost, volume-based postal rates followed publication of Hill's proposals.

=== Other claimants ===
Other claimants include or have included<ref>[[James A. Mackay|Mackay, James]], ''The Guinness Book of Stamps Facts & Feats'', pp. 73–74, Guinness Superlatives Limited, 1982, {{ISBN|0-85112-241-8}}</ref>
* [[John Edward Gray|John Gray]] of the [[British Museum]]
* Samuel Forrester, a [[Scottish people|Scottish]] tax official
* Charles Whiting, a London stationer
* [[Samuel Roberts (writer)|Samuel Roberts]] of [[Llanbrynmair]], Wales
* Francis Worrell Stevens, schoolmaster at [[Loughton]]
* Ferdinand Egarter of [[Spittal an der Drau|Spittal]], Austria
* Curry Gabriel Treffenberg from [[Sweden]]