but upon investigation it appears that many interesting changes have been made upon mere verbal instructions.

We shall have therefore to rely upon quite different sources for our information. Fortunately the enterprise of collectors has probably discovered all the varieties of the stamps themselves, and only a careful study of them is necessary to their complete description. The materials upon which the present work is based were gathered together mostly as accident threw them into the hands of the author, from time to time, without any attempt at systematic research or arrangement, until at the request of J. B. Moens, of Brussells, they were arranged to form a volume of his "Bibliotheque Des Timbrophiles." The annual reports of the Postmaster General have furnished some points of interest directly and many inferentially; the circulars notifying postmasters of the more important changes, a nearly complete file of which has been consulted, have been a great guide; while frequently very interesting details have been extracted from the files of contemporaneous daily papers; and the published results of the researches of such indefatigable investigators as Messrs. Bagg, Brown and Scott, in the Philatelical Press, and the articles of Cosmopolitan and Scott have been freely drawn upon. Many large collections have been kindly submitted for inspection, in particular those of Messrs Van Derlip, Sterling and Casey, and thus we are able to describe every stamp and essay from actual specimens, except in a few instances specially noted. While there may be possible omissions, the reader may feel assured of the existence of everything described.

Frequent demands for the translation of the French work have led to the present publication. But as that work was prepared to conform to the general plan of the works compiled for the series of M. Moens' Bibliotheque, it contained many things, concerning the history and customs of the post office of the United States, which the American collector is supposed to know, and omitted some details concerning the part played by various collectors and dealers in finding out the particulars of the history of certain stamps and like matters, which it was thought might be interesting to our home collectors, but which the impersonal character of the French Series made it advisable to omit in the original compilation.

The entire work has been therefore largely recast in the hope of making it more acceptable to American collectors, and in several instances comments have been made upon stamps that were not mentioned in the French edition, in order to correct certain erroneous views entertained concerning them in this country, which it was supposed was sufficiently accomplished by their omission in the other series.

St. Louis, August, 1886.

Introduction.

In 1676 John Heyward, by the authority of General Court of the Colony of Massachusetts, established his postal system with its office in Boston. In 1683 the government of Penn established a postal system for the Colony of Pennsylvania. In 1700 Col. J. Hamilton organized "his postal establishment for British America" including all the English colonies, but soon after disposed of his right to the English crown. In 1710 the English Parliament established by law the first governmental postal system with the general office at New York, which continued until in 1776 the Continental Congress adopted and set in action the postal system proposed by Franklin, who was appointed the first Postmaster General. The first law of the Federal Congress continued this system in operation as sufficient for the public wants, but the postal service was not finally settled until the act of 1792.

This law (1792) liked a tariff which with unimportant changes remained in force until the adoption of the system of Uniform Postage in the United States. Single, double and triple letters were charged 8, 16 and 24 cents respectively when sent to other countries, and four cents plus the internal postage when arriving from foreign countries. The internal postage between offices in the United States was 6, 8, 10, 15, 17, 20, 22 and 25 cents for distances of 30, 60, 100, 150, 200, 250, 350, or 400 miles respectively for single letters, and double, triple, etc., this for double, triple, etc., letters. A single letter was defined by the law to be a single sheet or piece of paper, a double letter, two sheets or pieces of paper, etc., etc.