Charles Knight
is believed to be the first person to have proposed the use of stamped newspaper wrappers. The proposal was made by him in 1834 in a letter to
Lord Althorp, Chancellor of the Exchequer. The matter was then mentioned during a debate in the House of Commons on 22 May 1834.
Matthew Davenport Hill MP, brother of Sir Rowland Hill, was advocating a payment of a penny for a newspaper sent by post and stated: "...
to put an end to any objections that might be made as to the difficulty of collecting the money, he would adopt the suggestion of a person well
qualified to give an opinion on the subject (he alluded to Mr Knight, the publisher). That gentleman recommended that a stamped wrapper
should be prepared for such newspapers as it was desired to send by post, and that each wrapper should be sold at the rate of 1d by the distributors of stamps..."
Hansard Report, 22 May 1834]
Some twenty years later, on 8 October 1855, the Board of the Inland Revenue announced that they “…are now prepared to receive paper to be delivered at the Head Office,
Somerset House, London, for the purpose of being impressed with Stamps for denoting the several rates of postage…”
And so it became possible for publishers to obtain Stamped to Order newspaper wrapper in Great Britain from this time.
An example of a Stamped to Order newspaper wrapper produced for Nestle, Andreae & Co in 1858 (17 11 58)
and used to Switzerland in 1859.
In 1861 the United States of America was the first country to produce newspaper wrappers for sale at a Post Office to the general public.
A 1c newspaper rate was introduced on 27 February 1861. The actual date of when this wrapper was first issued is unknown.
USA 1861 newspaper wrapper produced by George F Nesbitt & Co.
The design depicts Benjamin Franklin, the first Postmaster-General of the United States.
Three years later New South Wales became the second country to issue newspaper wrappers when it's first wrapper was issued on 14 March 1864.
A further four years elapsed before the next postal authority, the North German Confederation, issued newspaper wrappers on 1 November 1868 in
two values in two different currencies. After this other other countries followed in rapid sucesion. Victoria on 8 September 1869; Great Britain on 1 October 1870;
Romania on 15 October 1870 and so on.
Newspaper Wrappers are perhaps the least popular of philatelic items amongst collectors. At one time there was a practice of collecting a cut out of the
imprinted stamp from the newspaper wrapper. This practice has now generally fallen out of favour and newspaper wrappers are now collected intact.
Because of this past practice there are many newspaper wrappers which as a result are rare or even unique as complete wrappers and some wrappers are rare even as cut outs.
Except in instances of where the wrapper or variety is rare, newspaper wrappers should always be collected in an undamaged intact condition.
Used items will always be folded and sealed. Unused wrapper have in most instances been folded, so when buying mint items check that the fold has
not damaged the wrapper. An unfolded wrapper will always command a higher price when being sold (that is if you can get one!).
Just like stamps there are many varieties to be found amongst wrappers, some of these have never been listed. This is an area of philately where finding rare and unique items is stillpossible today.
Wrapper come with different watermarks, different shades of paper, different shades of colour, there are errors in printing of various kind, proofs and specimens.
The Higgins & Gage World Postal Stationery Catalog, which was last published in the 1970's was, until June 2019, the only single source listing newspaper wrappers
issued by postal authorities. Prices in this catalogue are very much outdated. There are in addition a number of specialised single country catalogues which
list newspaper wrappers from the more popular countries.
Ater 18 years work the "Postal Stationery Newspaper Wrapper Catalogue" was published in June 2019. The three part catalogue has a total of 1,258 pages with a total of 5,553 colour illustration.
Many new previously unlisted wrappers and varieties are now included in this catalogue. In addition the catalogue lists all known private overprints on postal stationery newspaper wrappers,
an area which has never been covered by an English language catalogue.
Specialist Societies for collectors of Newspaper Wrapper
At long last, after many years work, the catalogue has now been published. The three part catalogue has a total of 1,258 pages with a total of 5,553 colour illustration.
For more information and how to order click
HOW TO ORDER
ISBN 978-1-9161309-0-6 [part 1]
ISBN 978-1-9161309-1-3 [part 2]
ISBN 978-1-9161309-2-0 [part 3]
ISBN 978-1-9161309-3-7 [set of 3]
Please let me know of any other relevant webpages you may know about which are not listed on this page, so that they may be included.
Newspaper wrapper, Russia 2k green overprinted Kitaj in red, with additional franking 2 x
1k orange with blue overprint Kitaj; Russian Post Offices in China, postmaked Khan'kou (Hankow) on 30.08.1906.
