Issue of April 1st, 1866.
Fifteen Cents. Bust of Abraham Lincoln, on an oval disk 13½ by 18 mm. with rectangularly hatched ground, bordered by a broad colorless line, between two fine colored lines, and ornamented by short horizontal colored lines. On the sides, Roman fasces, without the ax, on each side. Above on a scroll, bordered by a colorless line between two fine colored lines, curved up and back to form small ovals, and ending at the top in foliations and inscribed on the band "U. S. Postage" in colorless capitals, in the ovals "15" in colorless numerals; below, a curved band following the outline of the oval, similarly bordered, and inscribed in similar letters "Fifteen Cents"; foliated ornaments forming colored ovals in the corners, with "U." in the left, "S." in the right, in colorless capitals.
Plate impression, 19½ by 25 mm., in color, on white paper, perforated 12.
15 cents, black.
Issued originally for registered letters, this stamp also served the next year, principally to prepay the postage on letters to Belgium, Prussia, Holland, Switzerland and the German Postal Union.
The entire series of 1861-63-66 was reprinted in 1874.
It may also be noticed, that the act of the XXXIX Congress, Session I, Chapter 281, approved July 27, 1866, authorized the use in all post offices of weights of the denomination of grams, 15 grams to equal one half ounce, and the postal laws to be applied accordingly.
Also the Act of the XL Congress, Session I, Chapter 246, Section 10 and 11, approved July 29th, 1868, provided penalties for re-using stamps that had once paid postage, and authorized the sale of stamps at a discount of five per cent to persons to sell again as agents.
Observations.
The plates of this issue having been prepared with a view of perforating, the stamps are placed sufficiently far apart to allow a perforation, without ordinarily cutting into the stamps. Occasionally eccentricities may be found, which are the result of accident. The sheets, as in the previous issue, consist of 200 stamps, the central point is indicated by three lines at the top and at the bottom, and the sheets are cut apart on this line and distributed in half sheets of 100, or ten stamps in ten rows. The printer's imprint is generally to be found at the center of the top and bottom of each half sheet, at about 4 mm. from the printed stamps, and consists of a small colored label with a dotted edge, inscribed "National Bank Note Co." preceded by "New York," and followed by "City" in colored capitals. The plate number also appears near this.