Wednesday 4 May 2016

Some Useless Facts

As the originating country for postage stamps, Britain has kept the distinction of never putting the country’s name.

The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.

The first non-royal person displayed on a British stamp was Will Shakespeare in 1964.

Most of the friends with whom I correspond by snail mail like pretty stamps.  Often by the time I have squashed on the address and the message the total postage amount has to be made up by a small, standard stamp.  I have been known to o ly leave enough space for this to go on sideways.  But you should be careful not to stick one on upside-down – technically doing that is treason!

In the early 1970s Bhutan issued a series of stamps that doubled as phonograph records.

On 3rd October 1995 the city council in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev established a commission to to ease confusion among postmen and delivery workers caused by there being 38 streets in the city that were called ‘Vostochnaya’ (the Russian word for East).

Plain postcards were introduced in the UK in 1870, and some illustrated and advertising cards were used with pre-printed stamps but Great Britain was slower than its continental neighbours to latch on to the possibilities of picture postcards.  It was 1894 before the Post Office gave the green light to their use through the mail with an adhesive stamp.

In 1968 alone, eight tons of paper were wasted by the United States Postal Service on perforations for postage stamps. (thanks to Ken’s Blog)

In February 2002 Thailand issued the World’s first rose-scented stamps for Valentine’s Day.


In the UK you can have a letter postmarked anywhere in the country by placing the correct postage on it and sending it in a larger envelope to the postmaster of the city of choice.

2 comments:

  1. But I found these facts useful!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I, too, was going to comment that I actually found the last fact in particular very useful.

    ReplyDelete

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