The first official post - office was opened in England in 1516. In Paris there are appeared letters with printed form of post – stamps and in the same time also the first letter – boxes on the letters in 1653.

Nearly 300 years England waited for the reform of the post – system. The man who tried it successfully was named Rowland Hill. In 1837 [about some statements it was in 1835 already] he suggested instead the high taxes for delivering a letter with weight till 14 gram to pay uniform prices only one penny in the whole kingdom. At the same time he also suggested the stamp with adhesive on its back – side.

The black one – penny stamp.

The post offices did not like this innovation. Nevertheless this idea was enforced and 6^th May 1840 two first stamps were edited: The black with a value one penny and the blue with value two penny. Since it the sender has had to use a stamp and pay the post tax this way [till that time addressee had to pay the tax].

The good think was spread over the frontier of England quickly. And so at the beginning 1843 stamps are appeared in some Swiss cantons and even in Brazil [so called the donkey eye].

In the same time so post – misters in The USA printed the post stamps but the first official stamps were edited there till 5^th August 1847[Franklin, Washington].

The rare ” blue Mauritius”.
(Both pictures taken from Http://www.martins.fr/multimedia/url/histoamericain.htm)

21^st September 1847 the British colony Mauritius edited its famous ” blue and orange Mauritius” with the picture of the queen Victoria and the mistaken notice ” Post Office” instead ”Post Paid”.

France edited its first ” adhesive” stamp on the first January 1849 [the head of Cerera] the same year the king Macmillan II edited the stamp in Bavaria [1 penny]. The later stamps [3 and 6 penny] contained silk for it they could not be counterfeited.

One crone ” Hradcany” edited since 28^th 1918
(Taken from www.czechia.com/filatelie/galerie1/gcs1001.htm)

In 1850 also The Austro – Hungary brought stamps. After the formation of independent The Czechoslovakian Republic, the stamps are brought there too, were first by the overprint the original Austro – Hungarian stamps.

Short after editing the first stamps started to appear so the first collectors. Maybe the first was Dr. John Edward Gray. Among the collectors were also important and famous personalities starting by kings [Egyptian king Faruk, Russian czar Mikulas III, Rumanian king Carol] and by presidents finishing [Franklin D. Roosevelt].

Henry V
(Taken from http://members.nbci.com/koopmaun/scans/scanindex.html)

British king Henry, the grandson of the queen Victoria, founded the largest existing collection of stamps. He had been starting to collect stamps as the small boy from the letters, which went into Buckingham palace and as the king he became the one from the greatest philatelists.