Postage Stamps and Postal History of The United States - Provisional Issue Stamps

Provisional Issue Stamps

The introduction of postage stamps in the UK in May 1840 was received with great interest in the United States (and around the world). Later that year, Daniel Webster rose in the U.S. Senate to recommend that the recent English postal reforms—standardized rates and the use of postage stamps—be adopted in America.

It would be private enterprise, however, that brought stamps to the U. S. On February 1, 1842 a new carrier service called "City Despatch Post" began operations in New York City, introducing the first adhesive postage stamp ever produced in the western hemisphere, which it required its clients to use for all mail. This stamp was a 3¢ issue bearing a rather amateurish drawing of George Washington, printed from line engraved plates in sheets of 42 images. The company had been founded by Henry Thomas Windsor, a London merchant who at the time was living in Hoboken, New Jersey. Alexander M. Greig was advertised as the post's "agent," and as a result, historians and philatelists have tended to refer to the firm simply as "Greig's City Despatch Post," making no mention of Windsor. In another innovation, the company placed mail-collection boxes around the city for the convenience of its customers.

A few months after its founding, the City Despatch Post was sold to the U.S. Government, which renamed it the "United States City Despatch Post." The government began operation of this local post on August 16, 1842, under an Act of Congress of some years earlier that authorized local delivery. Greig, retained by the Post Office to run the service, kept the firm's original Washington stamp in use, but soon had its lettering altered to reflect the name change. In its revised form, this issue accordingly became the first postage stamp produced under the auspices of a government in the western hemisphere.

An Act of Congress of March 3, 1845 (effective July 1, 1845), established uniform (and mostly reduced) postal rates throughout the nation, with a uniform rate of five cents for distances under 300 miles (500 km). However, Congress did not authorize the production of stamps for nationwide use until 1847; still, postmasters realized that standard rates now made it feasible to produce and sell "provisional" issues for prepayment of uniform postal fees, and printed these in bulk. Such provisionals included both prepaid envelopes and stamps, mostly of crude design, the New York Postmaster's Provisional being the only one of quality comparable to later stamps.

The provisional issues of Baltimore were notable for the reproduced signature of the city's postmaster—James M. Buchanan (1803-1876), a cousin to President James Buchanan. All provisional issues are rare, some inordinately so: at a Siegel Gallery auction in New York on March 2012, an example of the Millbury provisional fetched $400,000, while copies of the Alexandria and Annapolis provisionals each sold for $550,000. These cities issued provisional stamps in 1845 and 1846:

• Alexandria, Virginia ("ALEXANDRIA POST OFFICE" in circle)
• Annapolis, Maryland (eagle in circle)
• Baltimore, Maryland (James Buchanan signature)
• Boscawen, New Hampshire ("PAID / 5 / CENTS")
• Brattleboro, Vermont (shaded box with postmaster initials inside)
• Lockport, New York ("LOCKPORT N.Y." in oval)
• Millbury, Massachusetts (woodcut of George Washington)
• New Haven, Connecticut ("POST OFFICE" in box, P.M. signature)
• New York, New York ("POST OFFICE" over Washington portrait)
• Providence, Rhode Island ("POST OFFICE / PROV. R.I." in shaded box)
• St. Louis, Missouri (Missouri coat of arms)

The 1845 Congressional act did, in fact, raise the rate on one significant class of mail: the so-called “drop letter”—i. e., a letter delivered from the same post office that collected it. Previously one cent, the drop letter rate became two cents.