New South Wales is a former British Crown Colony which united with five others to become the Commonwealth of Australia. Fifty years earlier, in 1850, the colony issued its first stamp, part of a group called “Sydney Views”. Its pictured Sydney Harbor and settlers who first came to the colony. The re-engraved version of this stamp has clouds while the first stamp did not. A New South Wales stamp issued in 1888 is thought by many to be the world’s first government-issued commemorative stamp. It celebrates the centennial of the first British settlement in New South Wales. The world’s first semi-postal adhesive postage stamp was also issued by New South Wales (1897).