Postage stamps and postal history of Brazil Postage stamps and postal history of Brazil Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world. It was a colony of Portugal from 1500 until 1815. Brazil was the second country in the world, after Great Britain, to issue postage stamps valid within the entire country (as opposed to a local issue). Like Great Britain's first stamps, the design does not include the country name. The first stamps of Brazil were issued on 1 August 1843 and are known as "Bull's Eyes" due to their distinctive appearance. On 1 July 1844 a new series was issued which is known as
Naked Maja (postage stamps) of "La maja vestida" would have preserved all symbolism of the issue, though such choice would have been less scandalous. The Spanish governmental mail service, however, went all in. Despite the fact that postage stamps are officially a 'business card' of the issuing country, one of its official media symbols, and therefore sexual motives in their design are traditionally rare (and this is especially true for the first half of the 20th century), depicting naked flesh (both female and male) on postage stamps of that time was, strictly speaking, no news. Images of ancient statues or their imitations were quite