Before the postage stamp
1694–1840 · 10 stamps
Before there were postage stamps there were duty stamps. From 28 June 1694 English legal documents had to carry an embossed stamp to show that the tax on them had been paid: the Act was passed to pay for the war against France, and forging a stamp was punishable by death. On parchment the embossing would not hold, so it was struck on a small piece of paper, usually blue, fixed to the document with a strip of tin that was covered on the back by a printed label bearing the royal cypher. The Smithsonian's National Postal Museum notes that these cypher labels are thought to have inspired the first adhesive postage stamps.