With stamp prices rising, it's worth remembering that sending a letter once cost the average worker a week's wages
Stamps have played a central role in British culture since Britain became the first country to issue adhesive stamps for national and international postage.
The issue of the famous penny black and two-penny blue in May 1840 ushered in an era of cheap penny postage. Before the penny post reforms of Sir Rowland Hill, sending a letter could cost the average worker a week's wages.
The advent of the railways also enabled mail to be transported faster and cheaper in bulk than on the old mail coaches. The famous stage overnight route from Bristol to the City of London was killed stone dead by the opening of the railway, and within a decade mail coaches had virtually vanished.
Stamps spread to the rest of the British empire and to more exotic countries, notably Brazil, and the Victorian public was soon collecting them. A new word was coined for the hobby, "philately". The rise of the middle classes during the late 19th century further expanded the hobby and ushered in the age of major national and international philatelic exhibitions.
The golden jubilee of the penny post in 1890 was celebrated by special exhibitions, the sale of souvenir postcards, and dinners attended by the high and mighty and royalty.
The King to be, George V, became patron of the London Philatelic Society, which was renamed the Royal, and philately became known as "the king of hobbies, the hobby of kings".
The outcome of a famous Victorian murder trial once hinged on the date on the postmark of a love letter, and the type of cancel on this vital piece of evidence has since been known as a "Madeleine Smith" after the woman in the dock.
Stamp collecting is past its peak but many people are still drawn into the hobby by special events commemorated with stamp issues. The most obvious events are royal ones.
Queen Victoria's golden jubilee was marked by a new stamp issue in 1887, but they are not strictly commemoratives as they were on sale until the Queen's death in 1901.
Canada commemorated the golden jubilee of 1897 with a formidable set of stamps showing portraits of the young and old Queen Victoria and is marking this year's diamond jubilee with an issue showing the young and old Queen Elizabeth, with a design clearly copied from the 1897 stamps.
• Michael Goodman is editor of Stamp Lover, the bi-monthly journal of the National Philatelic Society