Post Office Department.
Finance Office ... 1861.
Postmaster,
Sir: You will receive herewith a supply of postage stamps which you will observe are of a new style, differing both in design and color, from those hitherto used, and having the letters U. S. in the lower corners of each stamp, and its respective denomination indicated by figures as well as letters. You will immediately give public notice through the newspapers and otherwise, that you are prepared to exchange stamps of the new style for an equivalent amount of the old issue, during a period of six days from the date of the notice, and that the latter will not thereafter be received in payment of postage on letters sent from your office.
You will satisfy yourself by personal inspection that stamps offered in exchange have not been used through the mails or otherwise; and if in any case you have good grounds for suspecting that stamps presented to you for exchange, were sent from any of the disloyal states, you will not receive them without due investigation.
Immediately after the expiration of the above period of six days, you will return to the Third Assistant Postmaster General all stamps of the old style in your possession, including such as you may obtain by exchange, placing them in a secure package, which must be carefully registered in the manner prescribed by Chapter 39, of the Regulations of this Department.
Be careful also to write legibly the name of your office as well as that of your county and state. A strict compliance with the foregoing instructions is absolutely necessary, that you may not fail to obtain credit for the amount of stamps returned.
Instead of sending stamps to the Department you can if convenient, exchange them for new ones at some city post office, where large supplies are to be found. It being impossible to supply all offices with new stamps at once, you will deliver letters received from Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Maryland and Pennsylvania, prepayed by stamps of the old issue, until September 10th, those from other loyal states east of the Rocky Mountains until the first of October, and those from the states of California and Oregon and from the Territories of New Mexico, Utah, and Washington, until the first of November, 1861.
Your Obedient Servant,
A. N. ZEVELY,
Third Assistant Postmaster General.
A second issue of this circular merely extended the dates September 10th, October 1st and November 1st, 1861 to November 1st, December 1st, 1861, and January 1st, 1862, respectively.