Adhesive postage stamps spread slowly to other countries. An Englishman, Henry T. Windsor, operated the New York City Dispatch Post and in 1842 introduced adhesive stamps portraying George Washington. The following year adhesive stamps appeared in Brazil and came to be known as the ‘Bullseyes’ on account of their unusual numeral design.

Shortly afterwards the Swiss cantons of Zurich and Geneva began issuing stamps with numeral and heraldic motifs respectively. Both were printed in two colours – a ‘first’ for philately. The Geneva stamp was something of a curiosity since it consisted of two 5 centime stamps joined to form a 10 centime stamp, hence the nickname of the ‘Double Geneva’.

In 1845 the canton of Basle joined in with its famous ‘Dove’ design. This was the first stamp to be printed in a country other than the one that issued it, having been printed at Frankfurt-am-Main in Germany. It was also the first stamp to be printed by two different processes (letterpress and embossing) and like the stamps of Zurich and Geneva it was printed in two colours.

In the same year US postmasters were empowered to issue their own adhesive stamps, one of the first being a 5c black stamp from New York, likewise portraying George Washington. It was not until 1847, however, that the US Post Office got around to producing stamps that were valid right across the country.

In 1847 Trinidad in the West Indies became the first British colony to have an adhesive postage stamp. To be sure, the so-called ‘Lady McLeod’ stamp was a private issue by a coastal shipping company, designed to prepay the postage on letters conveyed by the ship of that name. Not only was it the first colonial stamp, it was also the first discount stamp in the world. Single stamps cost 5c each but a complete sheet of 100 cost only $4, which represented a discount of 20 per cent to bulk purchasers.

Shortly afterwards Mauritius issued penny and twopenny stamps crudely modelled on the contemporary British issues and they thus rank as the first colonial stamps produced by the government. The famous Mauritius ‘Post Office’ stamps were engraved side by side on the back of the copper plate for a lady’s visiting card and were printed one at a time, in red and blue respectively. Only 500 of each value were printed at a cost that far outweighed their face value, making them the world’s most expensive stamps to produce!

They are known as the ‘Post Office’ issue because of the inscription on them. A second version produced soon afterwards was more correctly inscribed POST PAID. Most of the penny stamps were required for invitations sent out by Lady Gomm, the wife of the Governor, and at least one of these little embossed envelopes has survived with the stamp still intact. The ‘Post Office’ stamps have been reproduced on various stamps of Mauritius and other countries in more recent years and one of these commemoratives actually shows the invitation, with a ballroom scene in the background.

Bermuda’s circular stamps, produced by postmaster William Perot, appeared in 1848 and the following year stamps were introduced by Bavaria, Belgium and France. Interestingly, the first stamp in each case was printed in black or a very deep shade of brown, and in very much the same format as the Penny Black. From Bavaria came the ‘Schwarzer Einser’ (literally the black one) because the numeral of value was its chief motif. Belgium’s dark brown 10c and blue 20c are known to collectors as the ‘Epaulettes’ because they portrayed King Leopold (Queen Victoria’s favourite uncle) in military uniform complete with shoulder ornaments. France’s first stamp was a black 20c depicting the head of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, and therefore the first portrait that was not of an actual person, alive or dead.

Almost a dozen countries joined the select band in 1850. The creation of the German-Austrian Postal Union led to the issue of stamps in Austria, Austrian Italy (otherwise known as Lombardo-Venezia), Hanover, Prussia, Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein. Elsewhere, Spain’s first stamps showed the homely features of Queen Isabella II and following a short civil war the Swiss cantons formed a federal government which assumed responsibility for the postal services, hence the issue of stamps for use throughout the whole country.

Australia’s first adhesives, the celebrated ‘Sydney Views’ of New South Wales, appeared in 1850. It should be noted that this colony had had letter sheets with an embossed stamp as far back as 1838 – two years before the mother country – and these were used on local mail in and around Sydney for several years. Shortly afterwards the neighbouring colony of Victoria introduced stamps which, appropriately, portrayed the monarch after whom it was named.

Asia’s first stamps appeared in 1852 and consisted of the Scinde ‘Dawks’. The first issue consisted of embossed red wax wafers such as people then used to seal their envelopes, but subsequent issues were embossed in albino on white paper or in blue on white paper. It was not until 1854 that stamps were released throughout the whole of British India.

Further German states adopted stamps in the early 1850s as they signed up to the German-Austrian Postal Union. Canada’s Threepenny Beaver appeared in 1851 while Africa’s first stamps, the famous Triangulars from the Cape of Good Hope, were issued in 1853.

Thereafter stamps spread like wildfire and by the end of the 1850s most of the principal countries of the world had adopted these small scraps of gummed paper which were to revolutionise the handling and accounting of mail. By the end of 1859 no fewer than 70 countries had embraced the concept of adhesive stamps. In the two decades from 1860 to 1879 a further 104 countries were added to the list, and a further 60 appeared in the ensuing ten years. By the 1880s therefore stamps had spread to virtually every part of the globe and following the establishment of the Universal Postal Union in 1874 their use on international mail became generally accepted.