Postage stamps and postal history of British Columbia stamp was sold for 2½d, 3d, 5c, 6¼c, and 7½c without ever receiving a surcharge indicating a changed value. The surviving unified stamps sell for about US$250 , but much more if they are in good condition and well-centered. Postage stamps and postal history of British Columbia The postage stamps and postal history of British Columbia started in 1860 with the issue of a single brownish-rose stamp depicting Queen Victoria in profile and denominated as 2½ pence. It was issued jointly by Vancouver Island and British Columbia as each colony had insufficient postal trade to justify printing separate stamps. In
Postage stamp on the last day of the Congressional session four years later, the "Act of March 3, 1855" required the prepayment of postage on all mailings. Thereafter, postage stamp use in the U.S. quickly doubled, and by 1861 had quadrupled. In 1856, under the direction of Postmaster General James Campbell, Toppan and Carpenter, ("commissioned by the U.S. government to print U.S. postage stamps through the 1850s") purchased a rotary machine designed to separate stamps, patented in England in 1854 by William and Henry Bemrose, who were printers in Derby, England. The original machine cut slits into the paper rather than punching