The world's first postage stamp entered circulation on May 6, 1840 in England. "Penny Black" is the name of this one penny miniature because it was printed in black ink. The stamp depicted the profile of Queen Victoria.

Although the use of stick-on postage stamps was disputed by the bookseller James Chalmers (1782–1853), the invention of stamps is credited to Rowland Hill, later an English postmaster general.

He was one of the first to propose the introduction of a convenient and uniform method of payment for postal correspondence for all - a plate indicating the price of postal services, pasted on the envelope.

It took three years to implement the project, during which campaigning was carried out in the press, at rallies, petitions to the British Parliament, the creation of unions calling for the introduction of a penny port - a postage of 1 penny.

After Great Britain, stamps appeared in Brazil (1843), in a number of Swiss cantons - in Zurich, Geneva, Basel - in 1843-1845, in the USA - in 1847, and two years later - in France. By 1857 stamps were being published in 60 countries.

Until 1883, stamps with other images were not issued.

Information taken from Wikipedia