The first stamp for Ceylon was issued on April 1, 1857. The stamp features a portrait of Queen Victoria and is brown in colour. It is a 6 pence value stamp used to send half ounce letter from Ceylon to England.

Special feature of this stamp is it’s printed on a blued paper with a star watermark. Sir Rowland Hill proposed and adhesive stamp to indicate pre-payment of postage. At time it was normal for the recipient to pay postage on delivery, charged by the sheet and on distance travelled. The first postage stamp was printed in the United Kingdom in 1840. As Ceylon was a British colony in those days. Letters were transmitted between both countries. As result, Ceylon’s first postage stamp was designed in London and printed by Perkins, Bacon & Co. According to statistics 65,000 stamps were printed. Printing place contained 240 impressions in 20 rows of 12 and it was imperforated. Postal reforms came to Ceylon in 1856. An Ordinance published that year established postal rates effective April 1, 1857 at 1 d., for 1⁄2 oz. and an additional ounce being 2 d. Newspapers and printed matter for domestic destination was 1⁄2 d., and for foreign destinations was1d.The first pound of a parcel was 8 d., with each additional pound at 4d.

Prepayment was to be made by stamps, however, until stamps became available, prepayment could be made in cash.