Before stamps, the recipient paid for a letter, so people cheated.

1840

Rowland Hill told of a girl who glanced at an envelope from her fiancé and refused it: the news was coded on the outside. The stamp arrived in 1840.

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The event

• Penny Black, the first postage stamp1840 · London. Until 1840 British letters were paid for by the recipient, by distance and number of sheets. Rowland Hill’s reform brought a flat penny rate and a stamp with the young Victoria’s profile.

19th century

More amazing facts

• 1839 · 1842 The word 'dinosaur' is younger than photography: the daguerreotype was unveiled in 1839, while Richard Owen coined the 'terrible lizard' only in 1842.
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• 1840 Before the railways, Bristol kept its own time, ten minutes behind London.
• 1840 Britain is the only country whose stamps carry no country name.
• 1840 A bell in Oxford has been ringing since 1840, and nobody dares find out what powers it. Its dry piles have driven some 10 billion rings, and opening them would end one of the longest-running experiments ever.
• 1841 · 1848 Russia's fort in California was bought by John Sutter — the man whose sawmill started the Gold Rush.

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