Nowadays the term definitives is widely used to denote those stamps that are the maids of all work in a country’s postal service. They are the permanent series forming the backbone of postal requirements. They tend to be in a uniform shape and either in the same size throughout or in ascending size depending on face value.

In Britain, for example, the great majority of the definitives have been remarkably uniform in concept. With the exception of the highest denominations, and the halfpenny of 1870-80, they have followed the upright ‘portrait’ format adopted in 1840, and every one of them has portrayed the reigning monarch. In recent years, however, self-adhesive versions of first and second class stamps were originally released in the horizontal ‘landscape’ format.

From time to time there may have been attempts to inject greater artistry into the designs – usually resulting in rather fussy heraldic or symbolic ornament (as in 1887) – but pictorialism was rigidly excluded on the grounds that it was impossible to do adequate justice to the pictures. The only concession by the Post Office, after a sustained campaign by philatelists and the general public for more attractive stamps, was the issue of four high values in 1951 with scenic vignettes on the 2s6d and 5s and heraldry on the 10s and 31, followed by the Castles high values of 1954-68 and 1988-97. Since 1999 even this concession has been abandoned and the current quartet of high values has reverted to the small upright format with the Queen’s bust profile, although recess-printed rather than in photogravure or lithography. The double-sized high values of the reign of George V are known as ‘Seahorses’ from their symbolic element, but these cannot be regarded as pictorials in the true sense.

Other countries at first adopted a similar approach. But even from the 1840s there were several schools of thought regarding the subjects to be depicted on the stamps. Portraits of reigning monarchs were not as popular as might have been expected. Brazil balked at portraying Dom Pedro II and used numeral motifs instead. Spain ad Naples used portraits of their rulers but went to great lengths to devise elaborate cancellations that would frame the royal features without disfiguring them.

Although every country in Europe (except France ad Switzerland0) had a monarchy in the mid-19th century, only Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg adopted royal portraiture from the beginning. Other countries used numeral designs, notably the Scandinavian group, or heraldry, while the republics used mythological or allegorical figures of Ceres (France) and Helvetia (Switzerland). Later on, the imperial profile of Napoleon III was substituted when the Second Empire was proclaimed, but after the downfall of the Emperor during the Franco-German War of 1870 republican allegory was revived in the guise of Ceres, followed by La Semeuse (the Sower), Marianne, the Sabine woman and other portraits drawn from allegory.

Austria and a few of the German states, including Prussia, subsequently used royal portraits, but the German Empire preferred armorial or allegorical designs. The Wagnerian figure of Germania (actually based on the portrait of the actress Anna Fuhring as Isolde) was adopted in 1900 and for all his vanity Kaiser Wilhelm II had to be content with a tiny portrait amid the crowd scenes confined to the highest values.

The United States was the most enthusiastic follower of the portrait tradition but banned the portrayal of living persons. Instead, the pantheon of former (and long-dead) presidents and heroes of the War of Independence provided a seemingly inexhaustible supply of subjects.

The only divergence from this policy was the very handsome series of 1869 with its tiny pictorial motifs (some of which appeared in two colours), as well as a few denominations of the 1920s and early 1930s. Then in 1938 came the magnificent Presidential series which portrayed every president from George Washington (1c) to Calvin Coolidge ($5). To encourage Americans to memorise the number of their presidents each number up to the 22nd president (Grover Cleveland) was represented by a denomination of the same value in cents. The dates of each presidential term were incorporated in each inscription.

The problem of fractional denominations was solved by depicting other subjects: Benjamin Franklin (_c), Martha Washington (1_c) and the White House (4_c). The definitives from 1954 onwards have continued the presidential theme but considerably widened their scope to include eminent Americans in many other walks of life. In addition the series of 1975 drew heavily on themes from the American Revolution as its bicentenary became imminent, while in more recent years a long series of coil stamps has depicted all kinds of transportation.

Latin American countries have tended to follow the USA, with a mixture of presidential portraiture and republican allegory. A more frankly pictorial approach was adopted at the turn of the 20th century as a result of the activities of Nicholas Seebeck, an entrepreneur who persuaded a number of countries to change their definitives every year on condition that he was allowed to reprint the stamps for his own purposes. The prolific issues that then ensued have resulted in the so-called ‘Sebeeck countries’ which remained under a cloud for many years, although the stamps of that period now seem quite moderate by comparison with the spate of new issues at the present day.

Most of the colonial empires preferred definitives for each colony and protectorate In a standard design, only the name and denomination being different. Such keyplate issues included the Peace, Commerce and Navigation stamps of the French colonies, the stamps of the German colonies showing the Kaiser’s yacht Hohenzollern, and the various portraits of Alfonso XIII from babyhood to manhood on the stamps of the Spanish colonies. A similar penchant for royal profiles dominated British colonial stamps till the 1930s, and lingered on in the Leeward Islands till the 1950s.