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Postal rates to 1847. Initial United States postage rates were set by Congress as part of the Postal Service Act signed into law by President George Washington on February 20, 1792. The postal rate varied according to "distance zone", the distance a letter was to be carried from the post office where it entered the mail to its final destination.
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.
In the United States, the use of postage stamps caught on quickly and became more widespread when on 3 March 1851, the last day of its legislative session, Congress passed the Act of March 3, 1851 (An Act to reduce and modify the Rates of Postage in the United States). [48]
The 5-cent Franklin and the 10-cent Washington postage stamps issued in 1847 were the first postage stamps issued and authorized for nationwide postal duty by the U.S. Post Office. The firm of Rawdon, Wright, Hatch, and Edson of New York City were given a four-year contract to print the first U.S. postage stamps in 1847.
The full eagle logo, used in various versions from 1970 to 1993. The United States Postal Service ( USPS ), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the United States, its insular areas, and ...
United States postmasters' provisional stamps. In the Act of March 3, 1845, the United States Congress standardized postal rates throughout the nation at 5¢ for a normal-weight letter transported up to 300 miles and 10¢ for a letter transported between 300 and 3,000 miles, with these rates to take effect on July 1, 1845. [1]
The U.S. Parcel Post stamps of 1912–13 were the first such stamps issued by the U.S. Post Office Department and consisted of twelve denominations to pay the postage on parcels weighing 16 ounces and more, with each denomination printed in the same color of "carmine-rose". Their border design was similar while each denomination of stamp bore ...
Closer to 19th century tradition in the series of 1902 was its pantheon of celebrated Americans. Nine of the values—the 1¢, 2¢, 3¢, 6¢, 10¢, 15¢, 50¢, $2 and $5—depicted the same statesmen who had appeared on the corresponding denominations of the First Bureau Series. Moreover, on the 4¢ and 5¢ stamps, Lincoln and Grant merely ...