Postage Stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased, attached and is displayed on a mail as evidence of payment of postage.
Clients usually buy the stamps in bulk not for their immediate use but rather for the future when they are to post mail.
A client picks from their stamps a value amounting to postage that they would be charged for posting mail at a Post Office station.
The client prefixes the stamps onto the items they are to post.
Since these stamps reflect the cost of postage a client does not pay again at the Post Office to have their item posted.
Stamps usually have their origin as the place where the mail was sent from.
A postage stamp usually features a vignette (image in form of a portraiture, pictorial, emblem or a numeral), perforation, margin, inscriptions that include captions of the name of issue, name of issuing administration and the denomination, color traffic lights (small stars or dots), and water mark that usually minimizes counterfeiting.
There are four types of stamps
- Definitive Stamps; regular stamp issue for day to day use for postage
- Commemorative Stamps; stamps specially designed to commemorate personalities, events or anything of national or international importance. These usually are printed in limited quantities and never reprinted
- Thematic or Topical Stamps; issued on specific themes
- Provisional Stamps; Temporary issues and overprints often hastily prepared. It usually bears surcharges or overprints
Some stamps are so popular that they become rare due to the demand they attract. Some can only be found in museums. This results in them being very valuable. Philately arises out of this.
Philately is the study and collection of stamps and postal history, and other related items.
The stamps are collected for their value and beauty.
Philatelists do not use the stamps for postage but rather for stamp collecting and trading.