The Winton M. Blount Postal History Symposia - Smithsonian ...

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1 3 2 • s m i t h s o n i a n c o n t r i b u t i o n s t o h i s t o ry a n d t e c h n o l o g yit was best to purchase Grieg’s City Despatch Post, a localpost in New York City which had been operating successfullysince February 1, 1842. The purchase also eliminatedthe competition from that particular local post. August 15,1842, was the last day of the operation of Grieg’s City DespatchPost, and on August 16, 1842, the service continuedits operation but now was an official service of the postoffice with the name changed to “United States City DespatchPost.” There was not time to print new stamps so theCity Despatch Post adhesives created by Grieg (40L1) werenow used as official carrier stamps (6LB1). These are twoScott Specialized Catalogue listings. One is a local stampwith an “L” prefix, and the other is a carrier stamp withan “LB” prefix. The 40L1 and 6LB1 are the same face picturestamps. The handstamps used were different and onlyused stamps can be differentiated. All unused stamps fallinto the local stamp, 40L1, category. The stamps were soldindividually at three cents each or $2.50 per hundred. Thiswas the same rate Grieg had charged. The outer limit of operationsof the U.S. City Despatch Post was Twenty- SecondStreet. The areas from Fourth Street to Twenty- SecondFigure 1. The handstamps that identify covers used while Griegoperated his local post (left) and those of the U.S. City DespatchPost, the first government carrier service (right). From the 2010 ScottSpecialized Catalogue.Street was known at that time as Uptown New York City.Central New York City was from Fourth Street south toFulton Street and Downtown New York City was south ofFulton Street to the lower tip of Manhattan.The Greig’s City Despatch Local Post adhesive was tobecome America’s first and most versatile stamp producingplate. It was now also the first plate used to make carrierstamps in the United States. The plate was made byRawdon, Wright and Hatch. When Greig was operatingas a local post he used a “FREE” handstamp in a fancyoctagon (Figure 1). The “FREE” actually meant that thestamp was purchased and therefore the letter was prepaid.When Greig’s became the U.S. City Despatch Post, the cancelused was a “U.S.” in a fancy octagon shown in Figure1. The U.S. City Despatch stamps were prepurchased andthe “U.S.” octagon cancel was to prevent their reuse. Thiswas an innovative action by the carrier department basedon the same action used by Greig cancelling his local postadhesives. The carrier service also had a circular datestampwhich reads “U.S. City Despatch Post,” with the “U.S.”at the bottom. When Greig operated as a local post hisdatestamp read “City Despatch Post” with “N. Y.” at thebottom. These handstamps can be seen in Figure 2.Both the Greig’s Local Post datestamp and the U.S.City Despatch Post handstamp were double lined circleswith the middle reserved for a date and a clock time. Sincethis was the first government handstamp, the datestampwas an innovative action by the carrier department, as wasthe clock time, and it was based on the same action and designused by Greig when he ran his local post. Since Greigwas running the U.S. City Despatch, he made good useof the handstamp design he developed earlier. Sometimein 1843 the U.S. City Despatch replaced its double linedcircular datestamp with a single line datestamp which stillincluded the clock time. See Figure 2.Figure 2. The datestamps that identify covers used while Grieg operated his local post (left) and those of the U.S. City Despatch Post (right).From the American Stampless Cover Catalogue, Volume II, 1987.
n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 3 3Figure 3. The first new adhesive design for the U.S. City Despatch (6LB3) is shown at the left, and theGrieg’s stamp (40L1) is shown at the right. From the collection of Larry Lyons.The Second U.S. Carrier AdhesiveOn September 1, 1842, the U.S. City Despatch Postcame out with its first new adhesive design, which wasblack- on- light- blue unsurfaced paper (6LB3). See Figure3. This was the first carrier adhesive printed by a UnitedStates post office. In Great Britain stamp production wasin use since 1840. The use of prepaid adhesives was nowproven as a great improvement over collect mail and manuscriptnotations. This was the beginnings of a postal reformequivalent to the invention of the wheel. The firstnew adhesive design reads “United States City DespatchPost” at the top, as opposed to the Greig’s stamp whichreads “City Despatch Post” at the top. The side ornamentswere also changed but the general appearance withWashington in the middle and “THREE CENTS” at thebottom stayed the same. The original plates and printingsize was not used. The new plate was also made by Rawdon,Wright and Hatch. The original Greig’s local poststamps were printed in a forty- two stamp format of sixby-seven subjects, and the new U.S. City Despatch Poststamps were printed in sheets of one hundred subjects. CalHahn, a noted historian, plated the U.S. City DespatchPost stamps. He noted twenty- five positions on the leftand twenty- five on the right which were repeated to makeone hundred stamps. His plating analysis can be found inthe Lyons Identifier in Volume III on pages 1055–1066. 1Scott Trepel did pioneer work on the City Despatch Postadhesives; that plating analysis can be found in the studythat he published. 2The United States City Despatch Post was initiallyvery successful. By November 1842 they noted carrying762 letters a day. They had 112 stations with collectionboxes. Pick up was three times a day. 3 They employedeight letter carriers. The stamps were sold individually atthree cents each or $2.50 per hundred.The Unsurfaced Paper Coloredthrough AdhesivesThe major stamp in this category is the black- onlight-blue adhesive (6LB3) which saw major usage. Thisadhesive was issued September 1, 1842, and is typicallyfound on 1842 covers from September to the end of theyear. According to Siegel Auction Galleries lot descriptions,the earliest recorded cover with the 6LB3 adhesiveis September 2, 1842, the second day of its usage. Thereis a cover dated August 31, 1842, which is datestampedSeptember 3, 1842, the third day of usage for this adhesive.Lot 201 in the Middendorf sale is a cover which isreported to be the earliest use of 6LB3. That cover is dated
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Smithsonian InstitutionScholarly Pr
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smithsonian contributions to histor
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ContentsLETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR OF
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AcknowledgmentsThe symposium would
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2 • s m i t h s o n i a n c o n t
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1 0 • s m i t h s o n i a n c o n
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“Little Colored Bits of Paper”C
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 7as something
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 9protest came
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 2 1nals I revie
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WWI Philatelic Censuses of East Afr
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 2 5Table 1. GEA
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 2 7Figure 5. MA
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Explorations in the Official Regist
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 3 1receipts. De
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 3 3TABLE 2. Pop
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 3 5different ge
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Introduction to the Second Symposiu
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“Food Will Win the War”: Motor
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 5 1business tha
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 5 3support for
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 5 53. “Postal
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 5 7“Farmers W
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Picking Up the Pieces: The Aftermat
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 7 3and U.S. adm
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 7 5September, 1
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 7 7Figure 9. Th
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 7 9“B.C.O.F.
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Page 139 and 140: n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 2 9A Final No
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