From Penny Black to Godot
With its design, colour and subject, the postage stamp has long surpassed its original purpose of showing prepayment of postage.
Most people, before the introduction of uniform penny postage, weren't too keen to receive letters because they would generally have had to pay on receipt and the charges, based on distance, were very high. The very people who could have afforded to pay, certain Government officials and Members of Parliament were allowed to send letters free.
A selection of famous stamps
This Penny Red, not one of the early ones, has perforations allowing the stamp to be neatly separated from its neighbours in a sheet but the Penny Black and Twopenny Blue are "imperforate" and would have had to be carefully cut out from the sheet with scissors.
An envelope wrapper addressed to the Marquis of Anglesey, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He was entitled to receive his mail free and so the wrapper has had the FREE mark stamped on it in the GPO. It has also gone through Dublin's Penny Post system (which was not free even for the privileged) and has been handstamped with a 1d mark showing there is still a penny to be paid.
A Monaghan to Dublin envelope of 21st August 1889.The postmark also shows the number 334, which was the office number for Monaghan. Numbers for each head office and the more important sub-offices had been introduced in 1844 in order to help identify the place of posting.
With the creation of an independent Ireland it was necessary to design and print stamps for the new State. Until this could be done it was decided that the standard George V series overprinted in Irish might be used. Variation in the style and type of the overprints has provided ample scope for study by philatelists.
Over the years, the design styles and printing techniques used in the production of Irish stamps have changed.
The subjects continue to represent themes - cultural, sporting and historical - which reflect the nature and traditions of Ireland and its people.