There Are Many Kinds of Stamps

When the first stamp was issued, and for a numberof years thereafter, stamps were completely functional.They were issued to pay postage on letters. It was notlong, however, before other ideas crept in. Naturallyenough, if a postage stamp could carry a picture of theruling monarch it could also be the means of publicizingother things. Probably the first country to break awayfrom the traditional portrait of the sovereign or the nationalcoat of arms as the design for stamps was the Province ofCanada, whose first stamp was issued in 1851 and car-ried as its central motif a beaver. This is the moreremarkable for Canada was among the first few nationsof the world to issue postage stamps and, being a Britishpossession, one would have thought that the traditionalportrait of Queen Victoria would have been used. Thereason for this break away from tradition, a tradition bythe way that still persists to this very day in GreatBritain, is not known. The beaver was an importantanimal in the economy of Canada at that time and