75th anniv. of the UPU

The Universal Postal Union (UPU) 

The Universal Postal Union (UPU) is a specialized agency of the United Nations was born with the aim of improving the postal services in the world and to ensure international cooperation in this area. The two most important principles governing its operation, were the formation of a single territory by all signatory nations for the purpose of postal communication and uniformity of postal rates and the unit of weight.

The first attempt to agree upon general rules concerning the international postal service was in 1863, when United States Postmaster General Montgomery Blair called a conference in Paris. Delegates from 15 European and American countries met and succeeded in laying down a number of general principles for mutual agreements. But the scope of their decisions was limited and they were not able to settle on an international postal agreement.

This task was left to Heinrich von Stephan, a senior postal official from the North German Confederation. He drew up a plan for an international postal union, and at his suggestion, the Swiss Government convened an international conference in Bern on 15 September 1874. The conference was attended by representatives from 22 nations.

On 9 October of the same year - a day now celebrated throughout the world as World Post Day - the Treaty of Bern, establishing the General Postal Union, was signed.

In 1949 the 75th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union was celebrated throughout the world. All postal administrations were requested to issue special postal stamps to commemorate this birthday. It resulted in the first UN related omnibus issue.

My stamps in the series 75th anniversary of UPU