Affix the Answers to This Quiz on the History of Stamps

In 1921, Japan got a bit meta and released stamps that had images of stamps on them, becoming the first country to do so. The stamps showed pictures of the first four stamps Japan ever released, in 1871. Since then, about 5,000 stamps showing images of stamps have been released worldwide.

In 1940, Booker T. Washington became the first African American to grace a U.S. postage stamp, when the Post Office Department included him in its Famous Americans series. Born into slavery, Washington became one of the an influential activist and educator. He advocated for self-improvement and self-reliance to help Black Americans rise above racial injustice. He also founded Tuskegee University, which held a ceremony for the postage stamp’s release.

In 1986, the CIA unknowingly bought 400 stamps that had an error on them: inverted writing and an upside-down candlestick. Once the department realized the stamps were errors and would be worth a bundle of money to collectors, a group of employees secretly banded together to sell them for profit. The stamps sold for up to $15,000 each.

The world’s first self-adhesive stamps (which stick to paper without added moisture) were released in February 1964, to commemorate involvement in the New York World’s Fair. But they weren’t released by or shaped like New York state. Instead, the West African nation Sierra Leone released the stamps, which were shaped like the country, to celebrate its participation in the fair. It released another stamp, featuring President John F. Kennedy, three months later.

The rarest stamp in the world is the British Guiana 1-cent Magenta, first issued in 1856. It is also likely the most valuable, selling for $8.3 million in 2021. The stamp, issued by British Guiana (now Guyana), is shaped like an octagon and features a three-masted ship. There is currently only one of these stamps in existence.

The Blue Boy stamp was printed on blue paper and featured a circle of rosettes along with the phrase “Alexandria Post Office.” Issued in the 1840s (the exact date is unknown), it was a postmaster provisional stamp, meaning it was a city-specific stamp. Only one is known to exist, and it’s still affixed to the envelope it was used on, which contained a secret love letter between a couple in a forbidden relationship.

The first bag of mail to leave the Kingdom of Hawaii — before it became a U.S. state — was in 1850, sent to San Francisco. The first postage stamps didn’t appear until the following year, in 2-cent and 5-cent denominations. The stamps became known as “Missionaries” because the vast majority of the mail from Hawaii was sent from Christian missionaries on the islands to their families back home.

During World War I, 95% of pilots in the United States trained in the Curtiss JN-4H airplane, known as the “Jenny.” The postal service released a commemorative stamp featuring the plane in 1918, but there was a mistake in part of the run, and 100 stamps were printed with the plane upside-down. Today it is a highly sought-after stamp for collectors; in 2016, an Inverted Jenny sold for more than $1.3 million.

The first postage stamps in the United States went on sale on July 1, 1847. There were two denominations: The 10-cent stamp had George Washington on it, and the 5-cent stamp pictured Benjamin Franklin. The two founding fathers remained the only people featured on U.S. stamps for nine years, until 1856, when Thomas Jefferson showed up on a 5-cent stamp.

On May 6, 1840, the world’s first postage stamp debuted in England. (Prior to this, mail was hand-stamped with a postmark noting the day the item was mailed, and the person it was delivered to was expected to pay postage.) The prepaid first stamp was called the Penny Black, namely because the stamp cost a penny and was printed in black ink. It featured a profile image of Queen Victoria.