First countries to issue stamps

This is an incomplete list please refer to First Issues Collectors Club for a more complete listing. I put this list together because it was very hard to find on the Internet.

6 May 1840 Great Britain (first country to issue postage stamps)

1842 local delivery in New York city

1843 Brazil (Second country)

1843 Swiss cantons, Zurich and Geneva

1847 US Federal government (third country)

1847 Mauritius (fourth country)

1849 France and Belgium

1850 Austria-Hungary, Prussia, Spain, Switzerland, British Guiana, two Australian colonies, and the three German states of Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, and Hanover. New South Wales, Victoria

1851 Denmark, Canada, Trinidad, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Hawaii

1852 Brunswick, Barbados, Luxembourg

1853 Chile, Portugal, Cape of Good Hope, Tasmania

1854 Philippines, India, Western Australia

1855 Norway, Cuba, Sweden, New Zealand, South Australia, Danish West Indies

1856 Saint Helena, Finland, Mexico, Uruguay

1857 Newfoundland, Uruguay, Natal

1858 Peru, Argentina, Russia

1859 Venezuela, French Colonies, Bahamas, Uruguay government, Colombia, Sierra Leone

1860 Queensland, Jamaica, Malta, Saint Lucia

1861 Nevis, St. Vincent, Grenada, Greece

1862 Italy, Antigua, Hong Kong

1863 Russia/Turkey, Costa Rica

1864 Netherlands Indies

1865 Romania, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Vancouver Island, Bermuda, British Columbia, Honduras

1866 British Honduras, Egypt, Virgin Islands, Bolivia

1867 El Salvador, Turks Islands, Straits Settlements

1868 Iran, Orange River Colony

1869 Gambia

1870 Transvaal, Angola, Paraguay, Fiji

1871 Japan

1872 Germany

1874 Universal Postal Union formed

By 1860 about 85 countries or other entities had issued stamps and Great Britain had issued only 29 stamps. (source First Issues Collectors Club)

Sources: First Issues Collectors Club, STAMPS & PHILATELY by Brian Baum, Exhibit of some first issue stamps

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