Why did they thought it was that particular corner the right one to put a stamp in it? Why not the lower right? Or upside-down? Who decided on the upper right?
It is said, that during the Victorian era, young lovers who feared their
mail being intercepted by disapproving parents developed a code that
hid covert messages according to postage placement. An upside-down stamp
might mean the sender loves the recipient, while a sideways stamp could
have indicated they were being relegated to the friend zone. Variations
of the system are still being used today by loved ones writing to
prison inmates, who are also subject to mail review. While letter
carriers might sigh if they see an upside-down stamp, your pen pal may
grow downright wistful.
Placement was less important in the days when all stamps were hand-cancelled individually by postal clerks. With the introduction of high-speed cancelling machines starting in about the 1890s, the placement of stamps in the upper-right corner became more important to be as efficient as possible.
It's believed that placement coincided with the dominant hand—the right—of most mail handlers.
Now that mechanization has given ground to optical scanning at mail distribution centers, you can rebel against stamp placement if the urge strikes. Automatic mail-sorters look for stamps so they can apply a postmark. If the stamp isn’t in the upper-right corner, it may get diverted to a pair of human eyes to look for postage elsewhere on the envelope. Now, your letter wouldn't be thrown out if you didn't follow the guidelines, but using them could speed up the processing and subsequent delivery.
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