Stamps

The history of the postal service in Iran is traced back to the time of the Achaemenid king Darius the Great. At the time the postal service was made up of an extensive network, including equestrian and pedestrian couriers. With the formation of the postal offices in Iran, the Greeks and later the Romans adopted the system in their empires, and gradually the service developed in other countries. In 1837 Sir Ronald Hill conducted extensive research in the postal service and decided to establish a postal service with very low expense. The practice of receiving advance postal charges became the basis of a system which ultimately led to the creation of postal stamps as a means of receiving advance payment. Initially he suggested the use of envelopes and printed bands which were not very successful. Then on May 6, 1840 the first stamp called the black penny was printed. With the visit of Nassereddin Shah to Europe the idea of printing stamps in Iran was proposed. After his return to Iran in 1865 the king dispatched a delegation to France to conduct research on the subject. At that time Albert Barr designed sample stamps in four different monetary values (1, 2, 4, and 8 shahis) with the image of the lion and sun in the middle and the value of the stamps in the four corners. Then in 1867 the first series of stamps called Baqeri stamps were printed in Farous Printing House in Tehran and were distributed. In 1875 the World postal Union was formed and Iran joined the union in 1877. In the Stamps collection of Malek National Museum over 2000 stamps, including the first stamps printed in Iran - Baqeri stamps - , Sheikh Mohammad Khiabani stamp, Mirza Kouchek Khan stamps with the revolutionary image of Kaveh the blacksmith and many foreign stamps are on display.