Jerry L. Weikle, age 9, of Newport News, Virginia, for his question:

When was the world's first postage stamp made?

The very first stamps went through the mail on6th in the year 1840. If you wish, you may celebrate First Postage Stamp Day next Sunday, which is the 133rd birthday of the postage stamp business. Before this started, governments collected money from all sorts of stamp taxes. The so called stamps were seals, somewhat like fancy rubber stamps. Government officials added these stamps on a bill or record to show that a person had paid the tax he had to pay for this or that piece of business. The whole thing was very complicated and very unfair.

People hoped that postage stamps would be simpler and more fair. They were invented in England and other countries soon copied the idea. One of the first stamps cost a penny, another cost two pennies. Some people bought the stamps to stick on their letters, others bought special envelopes already stamped. The cheapest one was printed in black and called the Penny Black. But nowadays, if one of these 133 year old Penny Blacks could be found, a rich stamp collector would be very happy to pay a fortune for it.