US Postage Stamp Day is always celebrated on July 1 because the first stamp issue of the US was offered for sale on July 1, 1847, in New York City, with Boston receiving stamps the following day and other cities thereafter. They consisted of an engraved 5-cent red brown stamp depicting Benjamin Franklin (the first postmaster of the U.S.), and a 10-cent value in black with George Washington. Like all U.S.

stamps until 1857, they were not perforated.

Did you know that you can send secret messages by just changing the orientation of your postage stamps? Well...now you do! I first learned of this years ago when my mother instructed me to flip the stamps upside down to show love. Now that I have gotten older..I realized that my mother's original instructions might have a different meaning.

According to the Philatelic Database an upside down stamp in the top right corner means...Write no More. Which of course is NOT my meaning. Which got me wondering...are there multiple languages with stamps? And sure enough there are.

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