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A Little Postage Trivia

July 1st, 1847: America's First Postage Stamps Issued

In the early 1840s, letters were taken to the post office, where the postmaster would calculate postage based on the number of pages in the letter and the distance it needed to travel.  The postage could be paid at the time of mailing, by the addressee on delivery, or partially in advance and partially after delivery.  This system made accurate bookkeeping nearly impossible for the Post Office.

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When US postage rates were first standardized in 1845, it cost 5¢ to mail a letter weighing less than a half ounce up to 300 miles.  For mail traveling over 300 miles, or weighing over a half ounce, the rate was doubled to 10¢.  The 5¢ rate would have covered postage for the majority of mail at the time – few people had the need to send heavier mail over greater distances.  Two years later, in 1847, these rates would be reflected on the first US postage stamps.

Soon local post offices began making their own stamps to indicate prepayment of postage by their customers.  Today, these stamps are known as postmaster provisionals.  This system caught the attention of the Post Office Dept., and on March 3, 1847, Congress authorized the creation of the first U.S. postage stamps.  Four months later, on July 1, 1847,  the stamps began being sold in New York City.

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© 2018 Mystic Stamp Company, 9700 Mill Street, Camden, NY 13316.

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