History of the Postage Stamps of the United States of America

1. Corrections from the Errata page have been incorporated into this e-text.

BY JOHN K. TIFFANY,
Author of THE PHILATELICAL LIBRARY, President of the American Philatelic Association and of the St. Louis Philatelic Society. Honorary Member of the Philatelic Society of London. Corresponding Member of the Societe Francaise de Timbrologie, the Societies of Dresden, Wurtemburg, Etc.
1887: C. H. MEKEEL, PHILATELIC PUBLISHER, ST. LOUIS, MO.
Copyrighted by J. K. Tiffany. 1886. All Rights Reserved.

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 competition, 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 Assistant 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.