Produced by Bryan Ness, Christine Aldridge and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.) Transcriber's Notes: 1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_. Passages in Decorative Fonts are surrounded by =equals=. Superscripted numbers are preceded by a ^carat. Multiple superscripted numbers are surrounded by curly brackets {1 2}. 2. Corrections from the "Errata" page have been incorporated into this e-text. 3. Horizontal tables exceeding the width of this e-text have been reformatted to fit vertically. 4. Additional Transcriber's Notes are located at the end of this e-text. [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF J. K. TIFFANY.] HISTORY OF THE =POSTAGE STAMPS= OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. BY JOHN K. TIFFANY, Author of THE PHILATELICAL LIBRARY, President of the American Philatelic Association and of the St. Louis Philatelic Society. Honorary Member of the Philatelic Society of London. Corresponding Member of the Societe Francaise de Timbrologie, the Societies of Dresden, Wurtemburg, Etc. 1887: C. H. MEKEEL, PHILATELIC PUBLISHER, ST. LOUIS, MO. Copyrighted by J. K. Tiffany. 1886. All Rights Reserved. =CONTENTS.= PORTRAIT OF J. K. TIFFANY (Frontispiece). PREFACE 9 INTRODUCTION 13 Chapter I, U. S. City Dispatch Post 19 " II, Uniform Postage 23 " III, Postmaster's Stamps 26 " IV, Stamp of the N. Y. Postmaster 29 " V, Stamps of the St. Louis " 36 " VI, Stamp of the Brattleboro " 48 " VII, Stamp of the New Haven " 51 " VIII, Stamps of the Providence " 54 " IX, Stamp of the Alexandria " 60 " X, Stamps of the Baltimore " 62 " XI, Stamp of the Millbury " 65 " XII, Stamped Env. of Wash'n " 67 " XIII, Stamps of the Phila'lphia " 69 " XIV, Stamp of the Worcester " 70 " XV, Stamp of the Pittsfield " 71 " XVI, Observations 72 " XVII, The Issue of 1847 74 " XVIII, The Issue of 1851 81 " XIX, The Issue of 1857 110 " 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