History of the Postage Stamps of the United States of America Part 1

History of the Postage Stamps of the United States of America.

by John Kerr Tiffany.

PREFACE.

In seeking for information concerning the postage stamps of the United States, we shall turn in vain to sources which have furnished, in other countries, such accurate details in regard to the stamps issued by their postal authorities, for the stamps authorized by the United States Post Office Department are not manufactured by the government, and there is no "stamp office" to authenticate each plate, and register the number of sheets made from it, and no edict, proclamation or law informs the public of the values authorized for use, or of the designs, or other peculiarities of the stamps to be employed. The Postmaster General is authorized, in general terms of the law, to provide such stamps as he may, from time to time, judge most convenient and expedient for the collection of the postal rates fixed by other laws, and is required to have them manufactured by those who, under general provisions of other laws regulating all government work, offer to do it at the lowest price.

The proposals for such work and the contracts made with the parties successful in the compet.i.tion, reserve the right to the Postmaster General to change the values, designs, etc., from time to time as he may judge expedient, and specify nothing as to these particulars, while they are very specific as to the quality of the work, and the precautions to be observed in the manufacture, to prevent pecuniary loss to the Department. A government official inspects the work in order that it may conform in quality to the contract, and the records are kept of the number of stamps of each value made and turned over to the Department, without further specifications. In a word, no record is preserved of how many stamps of any particular design, paper, water-mark, perforation or other peculiarity, are made, or of the date of the adoption of any of these things. Third a.s.sistant Postmaster General Ireland, during his term of office, once wrote "It has always surprised me that the Department has never kept any official history of its stamps." Many of these details might be gathered no doubt from the very voluminous correspondence between the Department and the several contractors, if it were accessible, but upon investigation it appears that many interesting changes have been made upon mere verbal instructions.

We shall have therefore to rely upon quite different sources for our information. Fortunately the enterprise of collectors has probably discovered all the varieties of the stamps themselves, and only a careful study of them is necessary to their complete description. The materials upon which the present work is based were gathered together mostly as accident threw them into the hands of the author, from time to time, without any attempt at systematic research or arrangement, until at the request of J. B. Moens, of Brussells, they were arranged to form a volume of his "Bibliotheque Des Timbrophiles." The annual reports of the Postmaster General have furnished some points of interest directly and many inferentially; the circulars notifying postmasters of the more important changes, a nearly complete file of which has been consulted, have been a great guide; while frequently very interesting details have been extracted from the files of contemporaneous daily papers; and the published results of the researches of such indefatigable investigators as Messrs. Bagg, Brown and Scott, in the Philatelical Press, and the articles of Cosmopolitan and Scott have been freely drawn upon. Many large collections have been kindly submitted for inspection, in particular those of Messrs Van Derlip, Sterling and Casey, and thus we are able to describe every stamp and essay from actual specimens, except in a few instances specially noted. While there may be possible omissions, the reader may feel a.s.sured of the existence of everything described.

Frequent demands for the translation of the French work have led to the present publication. But as that work was prepared to conform to the general plan of the works compiled for the series of M. Moens'

Bibliotheque, it contained many things, concerning the history and customs of the post office of the United States, which the American collector is supposed to know, and omitted some details concerning the part played by various collectors and dealers in finding out the particulars of the history of certain stamps and like matters, which it was thought might be interesting to our home collectors, but which the impersonal character of the French Series made it advisable to omit in the original compilation.

The entire work has been therefore largely recast in the hope of making it more acceptable to American collectors, and in several instances comments have been made upon stamps that were not mentioned in the French edition, in order to correct certain erroneous views entertained concerning them in this country, which it was supposed was sufficiently accomplished by their omission in the other series.

_St. Louis, August, 1886._

INTRODUCTION.

In 1676 John Heyward, by the authority of General Court of the Colony of Ma.s.sachusetts, established his postal system with its office in Boston.

In 1683 the government of Penn established a postal system for the Colony of Pennsylvania. In 1700 Col. J. Hamilton organized "his postal establishment for British America" including all the English colonies, but soon after disposed of his right to the English crown. In 1710 the English Parliament established by law the first governmental postal system with the general office at New York, which continued until in 1776 the Continental Congress adopted and set in action the postal system proposed by Franklin, who was appointed the first Postmaster General. The first law of the Federal Congress continued this system in operation as sufficient for the public wants, but the postal service was not finally settled until the act of 1792.

This law (1792) liked a tariff which with unimportant changes remained in force until the adoption of the system of Uniform Postage in the United States. Single, double and triple letters were charged 8, 16 and 24 cents respectively when sent to other countries, and four cents plus the internal postage when arriving from foreign countries. The internal postage between offices in the United States was 6, 8, 10, 15, 17, 20, 22 and 25 cents for distances of 30, 60, 100, 150, 200, 250, 350, or 400 miles respectively for single letters, and double, triple, etc., this for double, triple, etc., letters. A single letter was defined by the law to be a single sheet or piece of paper, a double letter, two sheets or pieces of paper, etc., etc.

The following acts of Congress may be consulted with advantage by those curious with regard to the Post Office before the introduction of stamps.

I Congress. I Session. Chap. 16, Sept., 1789 I " II " " 36, Aug., 1790 I " III " " 23, March, 1791 II " I " " 27, Feb., 1792 III " I " " 23, 8 May, 1794 V " III " " 41, 2 March, 1799 XI " II " " 37, 30 April, 1810 XIII " III " " 16, 23 Dec., 1814 XIV " I " " 7, 1 Feb., 1815 XIV " I " " 43, 9 April, 1816 XIX " II " " 61, 3 March, 1825 XX " I " " 61, 3 March, 1827 XXVII " II " " 43, 2 March, 1845

The earliest letters which we have seen, consist of single sheets of paper folded and addressed upon the sheet. An envelope would have subjected them to double postage. They are penmarked with the name of the mailing office, the date occasionally, the amount of the postage paid or due, generally in simple figures, sometimes with the word "cents" in full or abbreviated, added. Gradually, hand stamps were introduced. At first the name of the mailing office in a simple frame, generally circular, the month and day being still written in with a pen, and the amount of postage written as before. A further improvement appears later on in the introduction of the month and day as part of the hand stamp. The word "paid" or "due," the amount of postage in figures or with "cents," either written or hand stamped, always added. And finally all the marks are included in one hand stamp.

There was evidently no uniformity of practice, except the general requirement that the name of the mailing office, the month and day, and the amount of postage should in some form be marked on the letter.

Improvements seem generally to have originated in the larger offices, but smaller offices sometimes took the lead in enterprise. An improvement once adopted does not seem always to have been adhered to; letters mailed at the same office on the same day and differently marked may be frequently found in old files. The hand stamps seem to have been obtained by the several offices for themselves, as there is no uniformity of style.

Some of these hand stamps are curious enough to warrant a brief description, and it would be difficult to lay down a rule which would distinguish some of them from the stamps we admit to our alb.u.ms.

A letter mailed at Philadelphia in 1825, bears an octagonal hand stamp with a double lined frame and the words "Phila. 20 Jan." in three lines, a second similar but smaller hand stamp with the word "Paid," and the figures "26" written with a pen, all in red ink. These seem to have been regularly employed for several years. Other letters from the same city mailed in 1845-6-7 and 8, bear a circular hand stamp, the name of the City and State surrounding the edge, the month and day in the center, a single line surrounding all, the amount of postage in large numerals and the words "DUE" or "PAID" in a small oval are separately hand stamped. Letters from Baltimore of the same dates bear a similar circular hand stamp with name and date, the amount of postage in large numerals in an oval, and sometimes the word "PAID" in large letters without frame. Jacksonville, Ill., Pittsburgh, Pa., and Little Rock, Ark., employed similar hand stamps at the same time.

Louisville, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Boston and New York letters of the same years have the same hand stamp with a numeral or numerals indicative of the amount of postage added at the bottom within the frame. When prepaid the word "PAID" was hand stamped below the other.

Some New York, Boston and Philadelphia letters of the same dates bear the same hand stamp with "5 cts," "10 cts," etc., in the lower margin within the frame, the word "PAID" being separately hand stamped when the letter was prepaid. Many western letters bear also the word "Steam 5"

hand stamped upon them. These hand stamps remained in use up to 1851 when the rates were changed and appear even upon letters bearing the adhesive stamps of the first issue.

In 1851 when the rates were changed to 3 cents ordinary postage, and 1 cent for drop letters, many of the same stamps appear with the figures changed to 1 or 3, or to 1 ct., 3 cts., and 6 cts., Boston and Petersburgh, Va., for example. A New York hand stamp of this period has New York above, month and day in the middle and "PAID" and "3 cts" in two more lines.

A Philadelphia hand stamp has name above, month and day in one line, and "3 cts" in another, in the center, and "PAID" in lower margin.

Another, the ordinary dated postmark and a second circular stamp, nearly as large, with the word "PAID" in large letters crossed by the numeral "3" nearly an inch long.

A Springfield letter has the ordinary dated postmark and a second hand stamp nearly as large with a large numeral "3" above and "PAID" below.

Cincinnati, Buffalo, Quincy, Ill., and others have the ordinary hand stamp with the name above, month and day in the center and "3 PAID"

below.

Another letter has a round hand stamp fully an inch in diameter with the word "PAID" across the center crossed by a large outline "3."

Another letter was hand stamped with a large "6" in an octagon double frame and "PAID" separately hand stamped across it.

The Cincinnati hand stamp also appears with "1 PAID" in the margin.

New Orleans has the ordinary hand stamp and "PAID," "1" in two lines of very large letters beneath.

St. Louis, has the ordinary hand stamp, and another with "1 ct" in large octagonal frame added.

Many letters where the word "paid" appears in the dated stamp are also separately hand stamped "PAID." Some of these letters bear also the 3 and 1 ct. adhesives of the period. Those that indicate postage to be paid differ from postage due stamps in no respect except that they are not adhesive. Those that indicate postage prepaid correspond to many other hand stamps in every thing except that they were applied after, instead of before payment; but in some countries we have examples of adhesive stamps applied in the same way. They are not beautiful but are interesting relics of the old system. A number of similar stamps with the words "Post Office" following the name of the town and "5 paid" have pa.s.sed through the hands of the compiler, but having been cut from the letters the date could not be authenticated. These would appear to be very similar in character to the adhesives issued by the postmasters of some offices about the same time, and to many similar stamps used in the early days of the Southern Confederacy.

I.

UNITED STATES CITY DISPATCH POST.

Hardly had the discussion of Postal reform begun in England than the subject was taken up in the United States. The daily press was full of it. Pamphlets were distributed broadcast. In nearly every city, private companies undertook to distribute mail matter at less than the government rates. Some even carried letters from city to city. In Congress, members related the expedients resorted to for sending letters at a reduced rate. In New York, a certain A. M. Greig had established a local delivery and employed an adhesive stamp, charging but two cents when the government exacted three. Such compet.i.tion greatly hara.s.sed the department. The act of 1836 had authorized the Postmaster General to establish a carrier system in such cities as he might think advisable.

Apparently with the view of disposing of Greig's post, Greig was made a government officer. The following letter authorizing the postmaster at New York to make the appointment was first published by the American Journal of Philately.

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, _Contract Office, August 1st, 1842_.

Sir--

By an order made on Sat.u.r.day, but journalized to-day, the Postmaster General has established a letter carrier arrangement for the City of New York to be called the "United States City Despatch Post" for the conveyance of letters from one part of the city to another subject to a charge on each letter of three cents, under the 20th section of the Act of 1836, and authorizes you to employ Alex. M. Greig, nominated by you as letter carrier, other carriers are to be appointed from time to time as may be required, and you are requested to nominate for that purpose. And you are also authorized to obtain the necessary fixtures, pouches, boxes, labels, stamps, etc, at not exceeding $1,200.00 for the whole and to appoint a clerk to superintend said establishment at not exceeding $1,000 per annum. You will be pleased to report the date of commencement of this arrangement.

Very respectfully, Your obedient servant, S. R. HOBBIE, _First a.s.s't P. M. General_.

JOHN LORIMER GRAHAM, _Postmaster, New York_.

In another number of the same paper we have the text of the following notice concerning the same post.

UNITED STATES CITY DISPATCH POST.

Hours of delivery every day (Sundays excepted) at the princ.i.p.al office, upper P. O. Park and lower P. O. Merchants Exchange.