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The journey continues!

This is the second book of the series, "United States Stamps: A History." It continues the tale of when the Bureau of Engraving and Printing took over the task of making our stamps. The Bureau would go on to print almost all United States stamps for the next century. The book explores why the Bureau took over and the problems they had when they first started making stamps. But the Bureau was a quick learner as soon after they would go on and create the finest group of United States stamps of all time, the Omaha commemorative series. Next, the first regular series and the first several commemorative series of the twentieth century are reviewed. A detour is made to review both all United States postage due and special delivery stamps since these stamps were introduced about this time. So discussing them now is both a review and a preview of all United States stamp production. The last chapter is a series of updates and corrections. The author realizes that the knowledge of United States stamps is in continual growth, so this last chapter keeps the first volume of the series up to date.

This chapter, like the last one on postage due stamps, discusses a “back of the book” series of stamps. The Scott catalogs lists these stamps with the prefix, “E.” Special delivery was an added service to postal users, speeding the delivery of the letter or package from the post office to the recipient. The stamps that paid for the service mirror the change in technology used to create all United States stamps. Though most are very similar in design, subtle differences in paper, watermark, denomination, and perforations reflect similar occurring changes in regular issue stamps.

Start of Service. Although many countries had or still have express delivery service and issued special delivery stamps, the United States was the first to offer such service and the first to issue stamps for that purpose. Special delivery service resulted from a March 3rd, 1885 act of Congress. The service began on October 1st of that year. It provided for immediate delivery of a letter to the addressee once it reached its destination post office, up until midnight. This was faster than waiting for the next day regular mail delivery. Then Postmaster General Frank Hatton established special delivery as a response to the many private carrier companies that were providing similar service.

The initial cost of the service was ten cents, which remained the same for the following 60 years, in those pre-inflation days! The stamp only paid for the special delivery service. Regular postage was additional. Until 1907, only special delivery stamps could pay the fee. And special delivery stamps never could be used to pay any other postage that was due. When inaugurated, the postal messenger received 8 of the 10-cent fee. If the letter could not be delivered, it was marked as such and returned to the mail service for regular delivery the next day. As one would expect, businesses were the biggest users of this service.