6. The impressed stamp must be carefully cancelled by Postmasters when the envelopes are posted. 7. An impressed stamp cut from an envelope cannot be used for pre-payment of postage in any shape, and when detached from the envelope on which it was impressed, it loses all value as a postage stamp. 8. In the accounts rendered by Postmasters, the amounts of stamped envelopes received from the Department and sold to the public or to Vendors, are to be added to the postage stamp items. * * * * * L. S. HUNTINGTON, _Postmaster General._ */ /# _Memo._--Stamped Envelopes are to be sold to the public at the following prices by Postmasters and Stamp Vendors:-- #/ Per Hundred. Per Ten. For Single Envelopes. 1 Cent Envelopes $1.30 13 cents 2 cents, or 3 cents for 2 3 do do No. 1 size $3.30 33 cents 4 cents, or 7 cents for 2 do do No. 2 size $3.35 34 cents 4 cents, or 7 cents for 2 Curiously enough no mention is made in the Postmaster General's Report of either the issue of the stamped envelopes or their reception by the public, such as was the case with their predecessors in 1860. We find from the stamp accounts, however, that the first supplies received from the manufactures were 554,250 of the 1 cent; 1,257,000 of the 3 cent size 1; and 564,250 of the 3 cent size 2. Further supplies of the 1 cent were not needed until two years later, of the 3 cent size 1 until three years later, and of the 3 cent size 2 until four years later, so it is evident that no great popular demand sprang up for them. The 1 cent envelope, which was intended for the local or "drop letter" rate, was issued in numbers averaging about 150,000 a year up to 1889, when the Post Office Act of that year, which increased the limit of weight of the single rate letter from 1/2 to 1 ounce and fixed the drop letter rate at 2 cents per ounce for cities having a free delivery service,[209] caused a falling off in the issue to 62,000 in the 1890 Report, and this gradually diminished to about 25,000 per annum in the Report for 1897, when the stamp under discussion was superseded by a new design. [209] See page 136. The 3 cent envelopes, being the regular letter rate, had a larger use; nevertheless the issue of the No. 1 size fell gradually from some 250,000 in 1879 to about 50,000 in 1897. The No. 2 size proved more popular, though the demand was somewhat erratic. The issue went from 78,000 in 1879 to 116,000 in 1884; then averaged about 85,000 for three years; next averaged about 120,000 for four years; and finally returned to the 85,000 mark for the next six years, when a new issue took its place.