The first stamp in the world - "The Penny Black" was issued by Great Britain on May 6th, 1841. Today it costs about 153 Pounds. Rowland Hill is inventor of the Addhesive postage stamp. Issuing of stamps and the pursued of the Hobby of stamp collection almost started simultaneously. As the story goes, the first stamp collector recorded was a lady in the Isle of Wight (UK) who started collecting stamps in 1841, to paper the walls of her room! Once she received a parcel of used stamps which got torn while in transit. Which resulted in a Police enquiry which ended with terming her to be a "harmless lunatic" !.
The first stamps in India were issued on 1st July, 1852 in the small province of Sindh, now in Pakistan, in white, blue and red colors. The design of these "scinde dawks" was the merchant mark of the East India Company. They are the aristocrats of Indian Philately. They were also among the first circular stamps in the world. The present value of Scinde dak red (used) is Rs. 2.00 lakhs approximately.
India is also the first country in the world to start official Air post in February, 1911, from Allahabad to Naini.
The first three post independence stamps issued in 1947, where of the denomination of 1 1/2 Anna, 3 1/2 Anna and 12 Anna value. Since then Indian has issued about 1400 stamps of various denominations.
