> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.thefrictionlog.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# The letter is for me and they want me to pay for it
- URL: https://www.thefrictionlog.com/02400/
- Published: 2026-09-24T18:03:35.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-12T16:12:26.000Z
- Description: Filed: 1635 · Solved: 1840 in the United Kingdom · the penny post · by Rowland Hill, postal reformer
- Author: The Clerk
- Tags: Solved, #solved 1840

*It's from my sister. Four pennies to read about her new hat.* — Younger brother, 1838

Before 1840, the person getting the letter usually paid for it, at the door, by the mile and by the sheet. People found a way around that. The sender put a little code on the outside, the family read the news off the cover, and then refused the letter. The carrier had brought it there for nothing. Starting January 10, 1840, a penny paid by the sender took a letter anywhere in Britain, and mail more than doubled in a year. Make a thing cheap and people use it.

**Noted**: because Britain made the first stamps, its stamps still don't print the country's name.

### The full file

The reform did away with free mail for the powerful too. Members of Parliament and lords had been able to send letters for nothing by signing the front. That ended, and the young Queen Victoria gave up her own free post to set an example.

The Penny Black didn't last a year. It was canceled in red ink, and people found they could clean the red mark off and mail the stamp again. From 1841 Britain switched to a red stamp canceled in black, the Penny Red, and used it until 1879\. Make a thing cheap, and somebody will still try to get it for free.