The Stamp Collectors Corner

Great Britain is often known for making seemingly normal everyday items into fantastic looking postage stamps.  In August of 2009, they released a miniature sheet of four stamps that feature England’s iconic wall mounted red mail post boxes.  Along with the set is a fully illustrated presentation pack that contains information about the past 200 years of England’s post boxes.  This is not the first time that Great Britain has featured their mailboxes on postage stamps.  In 2002, they also issued a set of commemorative mailbox postage stamps as well.

Before mail post boxes were created, post offices had a slot in the door to place the unstamped letters in.  France is credited with creating the first mailbox in 1653. The first post box appeared in Jersey in 1852.  Initially mailboxes were only of the pillar variety (free standing) and they were all painted green.  Over time others were created to include the wall box, pedestal box and lamp box and they were all painted red.  Here’s an interesting bit of England’s mailbox trivia…when the IRA bombed a shopping center in England in 1996, one of the only things that survived the bombing was a Victorian pillar mail post box that dated back to 1887.

Be sure to stop by Stamp Center to check out all of our fantastic postage stamps and philatelic supplies.  We offer free shipping to US residents and $4.50 flat rate to our international customers.