V. Michael Bove, age 9, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for his question:

Who made the first postage stamp?

Postage stamps were invented by the British and the very first ones were sold on May 6, 1840. You could have bought one for a big round English penny. It was a black stamp with a white portrait of young Queen Victoria and white letters that spelled out “Postage, One Penny.” Everybody loved the idea and other countries soon started making postage stamps of their own. The first United States postage stamps were made in 1847.

People started collecting postage stamps almost as soon as they were invented. In 1860, 110 years ago, an English schoolboy had a collection of almost 400 different stamps. When stamp collecting first became fashionable, people swapped for the ones they wanted. Later they kept the ones that were hard to find. Now a rare stamp is worth a fortune. Collectors call the first stamp the Penny Black and naturally it is very valuable. The rarest stamp is called the Penny Magenta. It was mailed in British Guiana, 124 years ago. Its cost then was one penny    its value now is about $100,000.