Postal History

The kids of today may not have known the importance of postage stamps while others may not even know what they really are. That is particularly true since in this day and age, postage stamps have lessened in number and usage. In addition, mails are often done electronically, by means of emails in computers. However, it does not mean that we should not appreciate the importance of postage stamps. Remember, these pieces of adhesive paper have mostly travelled far through cities, states and countries just to make messages reach their destinations.

Postcards introduced in Austria during the year 1870 were just plain in nature. These were illustrative in nature and for the purpose of advertising, originally sold with pre-printed stamps, however their popularity and use were very limited then.

It was in the year 1894 when postcards portraying certain pictures became known, but those were not easily accepted. These postcards were mostly images of city and seaside wonders, while themes and subjects were not common earlier on.

The making of Fakes and Forgeries is an activity that has been in existence since the early years of philately. It is done in order to defraud or deceive others in assuming that those forgeries and fakes are the authentic items. In the study of stamps known as Philately, this activity is very common thus learning to identify the authenticity of stamps from the fake is considered an interesting and important challenge.

Definition of Terms:

To best understand this article, definition of terms related to the study are:

Realizations of the British Postal Museum & Archive philatelic auction at Sotheby's was summed at a disappointing total of £400,920 (including buyer’s premium), with the estimated price for all 191 lot was £5 million in total. Sadly during this auction only 29 lots were sold. These unexpected results have placed the plans for the new museum in jeopardy.

The highest price paid for an item in this acution was £192,000 for the 1918-19 Bradbury Wilkinson 2s 6d, 5s and 10s registration blocks.