When was the first postage stamp issued?

The Penny Black was part of postal reforms proposed by Rowland Hill, which introduced a single low rate of one penny for letters, prepaid by the sender. Before this, postage was usually paid by the recipient and depended on distance. The stamp featured a profile of the young Queen Victoria and had no country name, a tradition British stamps still follow. Around 68 million Penny Blacks were printed before it was replaced by the Penny Red in 1841, because red cancellation marks were hard to see on black. Other countries, including Switzerland and Brazil, soon began issuing their own stamps.