New South Wales

The Australian colonies were remarkably innovative postal administrations and New South Wales was the first to issue a stamp in the new decade, this depicting the Seal of the Colony, printed in Sydney from an engraving by Robert Clayton.

In 1888 New South Wales issued the world's first commemorative stamp, on the centenary of the first settlement, and in 1897 the world's first and perhaps still the world's most attractive charity stamp set, first the 1897 1d plus 1/- commemorating Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and raising funds for a consumptives home.

Spain

Also on 1st January 1850, Spain issued its first definitive, followed by fifty-five years of remarkably dull stamps until the 1905 Don Quixote commemorative and eventually, in 1930, the celebrated Goya nude and the striking Columbus issues. Spain issued the world's first official stamp on 1st July 1854 and the world’s first war tax stamp in 1874. It has not issued a post due label.
 

In many cases, first airmails are definitive overprints, often with attractive cartoons of aircraft. Spain's is a prosaic example and in such cases I also show the first real airmail.
 

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