The first official central royal mail office was open in England in 1516. It is generally an accepted fact that the world's first postage stamps was issued by England, the effort of Rowland Hill, nearly 300 years later in 1835. However, it is interesting to note that even before this attempts were made to introduce some form of stamps. As early as the 17th Century stamps were introduced in Paris. Senders of letters at that time could buy special rectangles of papers with the wording " Port paye lell " and paste the paper on to the letter which will then be forwarded to its destination. However, there was dissatisfaction on rate calculation - rates for letters sent by horseback, by coach etc. This problem was further aggravated by workers involved who resorted to cheat and thus this system failed. In Austria it is reported that a postmaster named Eggarter had introduced stamps in his post office even before Rowland Hill. unfortunately Eggarter did not get official approval and further there was no documented evidence. Thus, years later when a letter bearing an " Eggarter Stamp " was found authorities thought them counterfeit.

In the 1830s the Englishman, Rowland Hill who was later to become the Postmaster General, sent in his proposal for the introduction of stamps. Rowland Hill himself drew the design for the proposed stamps together with his proposal in a phamphlet, " Post Office Reform: Its importance and practicability ", for uniform postage rates based on weight throughout Great Britain. He suggested that the letters which over the weight of a half English ounze ( 14.5 grams ) should be carried for a uniform fee of one Penny. The receiver had no longer to pay the postage fee, but the sender.

The first stamp, a black id known as the Penny Black was issued on May 6, 1840 together with a blue version of the same design with a face value of Zd. As the design did not bear the name of England, the issuing country, the tradition has been maintained till now were the name of the country does not appear on stamps issued by the England. From then on other counties started to print stamps. Europe after this and the United States of America in 1847. The first stamps issued in this country was in 1867.

So what is philately? Philately can be described as the collecting and arranging of postal material such as postage stamps, postal routes, letters, covers and other material. This collection, be it stamps, covers and others are usually documented to trace major historical events and other events.

It cannot be established when philately was first started as a hobby as there is no known documentation. However, it can be ascertained that philately only started after the introduction of the postage stamp in 1840.

It is also known that stamps were first used to decorate walls, lamps shades and others in England. In the 1850s it was common to see advertisements in London newspapers requesting f or a large amount of coloured stamps for papering a bedroom. Collection of stamps to be pasted on walls tapered of when a more advanced approach was made to collect stamps by, using albums. The first album was produced in England in 1852.

The word " philately " is said to have been coined in France in 1864 by Georges Herpin. It is from two Greek words : " philos " meaning loving and llateleiall meaning free of payment. Originally philately was more confined to the study of labels, representing payment for postal services. From here its area was widened to include the study of the systematic collection of postage stamps, postcards, postal covers, postmarks and other postal material.

Short after the issued of the first stamps, the first collectors of stamps were found. First, most people laughed at these collectors. But soon they became more and more. The first collectors collected stamps of the whole world bacause there were not so much issues at the beginning. These stamps were stored in the most different ways. There were collectors who collected their stamps on a string or affixed their stamps on a wallpaper. This was not a good way collecting stamps. Therefore the first stamp book was produced in England in1852. They glued the stamps into the book. This was not a good treatment for the stamps too. The stamps finally could be handled with more care with the invention of the hinge in 1889.

Thus, when more postage stamps became available the hobby of collecting stamps became quite common. More people began to take an interest in stamp collecting and philately began to develop. Many serious collector emerged and one of the world's largest and oldest stamp collections is owned by the Queen of England. DYTM Raja Muda of Selangor is also reputed to have a good collection.

The first association for stamps collectors was founded in 1856 in the USA, the " Omnibus Club ". There were not only collectors of stamps but also collectors of bugs and so on. The first pure stamps association was founded in 1866, the " Stamp Association ".

" The Monthly Advertiser " was the first stamps magazine. It appeared for the first time in Liverpool.

Dr. John Edward Gray claimed to be the first philatelist. We can find a lot of famous collections at royalties. The English royalty had the most famous collection with very much world rarities especially from Great Britain and its colonies. The collections of King Faruk from Egypt, Czar Nikolaus III from Russia, King Carol of Romania were also well - known.

The collection of Philipp la Renotiere of Ferrary was the most famous private stamps collector. Ferrary started as a kid to collect stamps. His large property helped him to buy the most valuable stamps. A lot of dealers worked only for him and bought expensive stamps and collections all over the world. Ferrary lived in Paris before the World War I. He thought to be a German. Therefore he had to flee to Switzerland when the World War I started. France confiscated his collections. Ferrary died in 1917. France auctioned his collections in 1921. France got 6,000,000 Goldmarks for the collections. So this unique collections with the most seldom world rarities didn't anymore.