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" XX, The Issue of 1861 122 " XXI, The Issue of 1867-9 137 " XXII, The Issue of 1869 144 " XXIII, The Issue of 1870 158 " XXIV, Postage Due Stamps 198 " XXV, Special Delivery Stamp 204 " XXVI, Newspaper and Periodical St'ps 209 " XXVII, Official Stamps 227 " XXVIII, Official Seals 249 " XXIX, Reprints 254 Index 267 Publishers' Announcements 275

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Errata.

Page 96, 3d line from top, for 25c lilac read 24 cents.

Page 102 in lines 5, 6, 7 and 8 from bottom in last column for F² G² H² I² read F⁴ G⁴ H⁴ I⁴.

Page 103 in lines 16 to 20 in second column for S² T² U² V² W² read S³, T³, U³, V³, W³.

Page 104 5th line from bottom, omit u in "prolongued."

Page 143, 9th line from top for "follows" read "above."

Page 144, last line supply "test of" in the blank.

Page 196, 4th line from top for (") read "cochineal."

Page 196, 6th line from top, for "12 cents" read "15 cents."

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Preface.

In seeking for information concerning the postage stamps of the United States, we shall turn in vain to sources which have furnished, in other countries, such accurate details in regard to the stamps issued by their postal authorities, for the stamps authorized by the United States Post Office Department are not manufactured by the government, and there is no "stamp office" to authenticate each plate, and register the number of sheets made from it, and no edict, proclamation or law informs the public of the values authorized for use, or of the designs, or other peculiarities of the stamps to be employed. The Postmaster General is authorized, in general terms of the law, to provide such stamps as he may, from time to time, judge most convenient and expedient for the collection of the postal rates fixed by other laws, and is required to have them manufactured by those who, under general provisions of other laws regulating all government work, offer to do it at the lowest price.

The proposals for such work and the contracts made with the parties successful in the competition, reserve the right to the Postmaster General to change the values, designs, etc., from time to time as he may judge expedient, and specify nothing as to these particulars, while they are very specific as to the quality of the work, and the precautions to be observed in the manufacture, to prevent pecuniary loss to the Department. A government official inspects the work in order that it may conform in quality to the contract, and the records are kept of the number of stamps of each value made and turned over to the Department, without further specifications. In a word, no record is preserved of how many stamps of any particular design, paper, water-mark, perforation or other peculiarity, are made, or of the date of the adoption of any of these things. Third Assistant Postmaster General Ireland, during his term of office, once wrote "It has always surprised me that the Department has never kept any official history of its stamps." Many of these details might be gathered no doubt from the very voluminous correspondence between the Department and the several contractors, if it were accessible,