About 60,000 Valentine cards were posted in the United Kingdom in 1835.
That figure shows how popular Valentine correspondence had become even before Britain introduced its famous prepaid adhesive stamp. Sending mail was still expensive, because postal charges were often paid by the recipient and could depend on distance and the number of sheets used.
The 1835 total is especially striking because many valentines were handmade or elaborately decorated. Their popularity helped create a growing trade in printed verses, illustrations and ornamental cards, while allowing admirers to communicate affection anonymously.
Postal reform soon transformed the scale of the custom. Sir Rowland Hill’s reforms led to the Penny Black in 1840 and made a one-penny rate possible for qualifying letters. Roughly 400,000 Valentines were posted just one year after the stamp’s introduction. The later surge is why 1835’s 60,000 is best understood as an important pre-reform benchmark, not the peak of the tradition.