John K. Tiffany

“ We would call the attention of merchants and indeed all who pay postage, to the advertisement of the postmaster, who offers to sell stamps of the value of five cents each for the prepayment of letters. This is the cost of the postage under 300 miles. [32] The stamps should be generally adopted as they will give additional facilities to business men, and save them time in making change. The postmaster will receive nothing for this trouble and his stamps beyond the profit of lost stamps. The disposition of the postmaster to make the new system popular merits the thanks of our citizens. ”

“ In fact it was a mere contract between the postmaster and the purchaser of his stamps, that when a letter bearing one of his stamps was mailed at his office, it should be treated as if the money were handed in with it. No postmaster recognized the stamp of any post office but his own. A letter adorned with a New York stamp mailed at the St. Louis office would have been treated as unpaid. A New York stamp was recognized only at the New York office, and a St. Louis stamp only at the St. Louis office. ”

“ The salaries of many of the smaller offices depended on the amount of postage collected, and the importance of all offices was estimated by the revenue collected. It was natural, therefore, as the public demand for such accommodation grew, that the postmaster should adopt a device tending to their own benefit. There are in the possession of the present author a number of hand stamps, apparently cut from letters and envelopes, inscribed such and such a "Post Office," "5 Cents Paid," which would seem to be stamps of this kind, but in the absence of further information, are not here chronicled. ”

“ Provided that no person shall frank or enclose any letter or packet other than his own, but any public letter or packet from the department of the Treasury may be franked by the Secretary of the Treasury, or the assistant Secretary, or by the Comptroller, Register, Auditor or Treasurer, and that each person before named shall deliver to the post office, every letter or packet enclosed to him, which may be directed to any other person, noting the place from whence it comes by post, and the usual postage shall be charged thereon. ”

“ The question as to whether the Postmaster General might not issue postage stamps on his own authority was raised and officially decided in the negative, although the Postmaster General himself favored their use. The postmasters in several places however undertook to meet the public demand by having stamps prepared on their own responsibility, paying the expense of manufacture themselves and selling them to the public at a sufficient advance on the postal rates, to cover the cost of engraving and printing. ”

“ The Post Office Department of the United States, besides the stamps for the collection of postage, has employed from time to time for special usages certain seals which, as they are adhesive and in the form of postage stamps and officially used, are here described, although they are of no postal value and not properly stamps, but are all employed to indicate that the packages which bear them are properly secured and have not been tampered with in transit. ”

“ 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 competition greatly harassed the department. The act of 1836 had authorized the Postmaster General to establish a carrier system in such cities as he might think advisable. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Good paper is used; size of pages 81⁄2 by 11 inches; a neat border surrounds each page and an ornamental band at top for the reception of the name of the country. Neatly printed names are provided on adhesive paper.
Guards or stubs are bound between the pages, so that when filled it will not bulge, it is equally well adapted for postal cards, stamps or envelopes.
One thousand lithographed stamp mounts are furnished with each album. The stamp mounts are on a new plan, a neat black border surrounds the stamp, and the mounts are provided in different sizes for the various stamps. ”

“ The first impressions of this altered plate are in an ashey blue and, the upper ornaments are rendered indistinct by the interior lines. There is a whitish space, like a reflection beneath the bust.
(b) Later impressions in 1886, show the upper ornaments more distinctly white, and shaded outside again by lines parallel to their curves. A heavy shadow now appears under the bust, the ground being almost solid where it falls. The color by daylight is again slightly of the ultramarine cast, but differing only slightly from the ashey hue by gaslight. ”

“ Any one familiar with the law of 1836 will see that the Postmaster General widely exceeded the authority conferred on him as it would be construed to day in making the "arrangement" under the power to provide a carrier system. The labels and stamps mentioned in the letter quoted were probably however, not intended to include the postage stamp actually issued, as these terms are used in various documents, reports, etc., of the period to designate quite different articles, the "stamps" being invariably the hand stamps such as we have already described. ”

“ With the newspaper stamps of the 1865 issue the facts are different. While they are from the same plates apparently, they can generally be detected by the color. As the five cents with white border does not appear in the list of reprints or "specimens" the series was not, after all, complete, and the possessor of this stamp may feel confident of possessing an original. The companion five cents with colored border is exactly of the same color, varying only in different specimens of either variety in depths of color. ”

“ The greater part of the stamps sold at the Post Office in this city are worthless, and have not sufficient gum to make them stick to letters. One can be amused, or become indignant, in watching people who buy stamps, demanding a little mucilage from the clerk, in order to fasten the stamp on their envelopes. ”

“ The reprint of the one cent is from a new plate, the stamps have the outside fine labels of the original imperforate series, but are set farther apart on the plate so that even the larger perforation used does not cut into the stamp. The blue is too bright. The reprinted three cents has the outer top and bottom lines of the original imperforate stamp. The stamps do not seem to have been set quite far enough apart on the plate, as most specimens are somewhat marred by the large perforation. The color is however a vermilion and not the brick-red, pink or carmine of the originals. ”

“ The newspaper and periodical stamps will be sold in quantities of not less than two dollars worth in each case, of any denomination or denominations that may be ordered.
Under no circumstances will stamps be sold for less than their face value.
Payment must invariably be made in advance in current funds of the United States. Mutilated currency, internal revenue and postage stamps, bank checks and drafts, will not be accepted, but will in all cases be returned to the sender. ”

“ Ten Cents. The frame lines have all been strengthened as well as those of the background, so that the entire stamp is more uniform in engraving and color, but has entirely lost its light look. The edges no longer fade away, but stand out sharp from the paper. It is apparent to the eye that the space between the oval and the shield, is reduced one-third its width. There are only four vertical lines between the line of the shield and the line of the oval at their nearest point on the left, or six lines in all; in the originals, there were five lines, or seven in all. ”

“ Another attempt is to be made to give us decent postage stamps. We suppose it will fail, as so many have hitherto. Our postal authorities try too much. If they will only take the Italian or French stamp, and put Washington's head in place of Victor Emanuel's, or Napoleon's, they cannot fail; but they will try some improvements and spoil all. ”

“ They were National and American, as they ought to have been. The head of Washington was venerable, and our three cent stamps were as perfect as they well could be. So also the one cent stamp with the head of Franklin was equally appropriate. There was [147] a fitness of congruity in putting the head of the old, thrifty economist, on the one cent stamp. ”