To this the report of the Postmaster General for 1885, adds: "The use of official postage stamps and stamped envelopes having ceased on the 30th of June, 1884, and the same having been declared invalid for postages by the Act of July 5th, 1884, the stock remaining in the hands of the stamp and envelope contractors was destroyed in February last, under the supervision of the committee appointed by the Postmaster General." From the report of this committee it appears that they destroyed in all, 17,024,588 official stamps, and 1,739,290 of ordinary and newspaper stamps that had ceased to be of use. Also that about 2½ per cent of all the stamps manufactured annually, are destroyed, a single imperfect specimen on the "sheet" of 100 causing the rejection of at least fifty or half the sheet. XXVIII. OFFICIAL SEALS. The Post Office Department of the United States, besides the stamps for the collection of postage, has employed from time to time for special usages certain seals which, as they are adhesive and in the form of postage stamps and officially used, are here described, although they are of no postal value and not properly stamps, but are all employed to indicate that the packages which bear them are properly secured and have not been tampered with in transit. REGISTERED PACKAGE SEAL. This is a large rectangular seal 71½ by 39 mm., in the form of an adhesive stamp duly gummed and perforated. After the letters or parcels of registered letters were duly placed in the large registered package envelopes employed for the purpose, one of these seals was firmly secured over the tongue of the envelope and duly stamped with the date of mailing. It is simply an additional guarantee to the receiving office that the package has not been opened since it was sealed at the sending office. A circular announcing its issue and directing its use was issued from the office of the Third Assistant Postmaster General at Washington, dated February 14, 1872. A second circular from the same office dated 1875, without stating the month or day, announces the adoption of a differently constructed envelope and the abandonment of the use of the registered seal. ISSUE OF FEBRUARY 14, 1872.