Royal Mail is 500 - Five things you didn't know
- Published
The Royal Mail all started when King Henry VIII made Sir Brian Tuke the first 'Master of the Posts' in 1516. He was in charge of organising a system where each town in the country had to have three horses available to transport packets of royal letters, and bring back news to the king. This was the beginning of the postal service.
The first ever stamp was the Penny Black stamp, which went on sale on 1 May 1840 - which, unsurprisingly, cost a penny to buy. The first person to send a stamped letter was Thomas Moore Musgrave - it sold at auction for more than 拢50,000 in 1990.
The first Christmas card went on sale in 1843, the same year Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol. 1,000 of these Christmas cards were printed and sold for a shilling each, which was 12 pennies.
Shakespeare was the very first 'commoner' to feature on a stamp, in 1964. The stamp was released to celebrate the 400th anniversary of his birth.
The top three animals to feature on postage stamps are birds, dogs and horses.
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