Postal history
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Postal history is the study of the development of postal systems. Its basis is the activity of postal authorities which issue postage stamps and control the means of collection, sorting and delivery of mail. The subject includes the study of rates charged, routes followed and special handling of letters. Areas of special interest include disrupted or transitional periods, such as wars and military occupations, and mail to remote areas. The term has also come to refer to collections of covers and other material illustrating episodes in postal history.
Postal history grew out of philately. As that discipline developed, philatelic students discovered that understanding and authentication of stamps depended on knowing why postal authorities issued particular stamps, where they were used and how. For instance, a stamp apparently used before any other stamp of its type could be proved a forgery if it was postmarked at a location known not to have received any stamps until three weeks later.
Postal history has since become a speciality in its own right. There is much that is still not known about the workings of postal systems, and millions of old covers have survived, constituting a rich field of "artifacts" for analysis.
Whereas philately is concerned with the study of the stamps per se, including the technical aspects of stamp production and distribution, postal history refers to stamps as historical documents; similarly re postmarks, postcards, envelopes and the letters they contain.
See also: timeline of postal history
