Postage stamps and postal history of the United States a precondition for their issue by a nation was the establishment of standardized rates for delivery throughout the country. If postal fees were to remain (as they were in many lands) a patchwork of many different jurisdictional rates, the use of stamps would only produce limited gains in efficiency, for postal clerks would still have to spend time calculating the rates on many letters: only then would senders know how much postage to put on them. The introduction of postage stamps in the UK in May 1840 was received with great interest in the United States (and around the world).
Postage stamps and postal history of the German colonies Postage stamps and postal history of the German colonies This is a survey of postage stamps and postal history of the German colonies and part of the postage stamps and postal history of Germany, as well as those of the individual countries and territories concerned. With the establishment of a colonial empire by the newly unified Germany after 1871 and before the issuance of specific stamps inscribed with the name of the colony, definitive stamps of Germany were used. Only postally used stamps can be identified as having been used in the colony as the cancellation mark identifies the point