Plate impression 19 by 25 mm., in color, on white paper, perforated 12.

1 cent, purple, 25,000 issued.

2 cents, " 26,900 "

3 " " 182,000 "

6 " " 84,000 "

10 " " 20,500 "

12 " " 26,800 "

15 " " 12,800 "

24 " " 12,800 "

30 " " 8,600 "

90 " " 3,200 "

The color varies very slightly in intensity.

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.

The ovals containing the heads, bands scrolls and large numerals are placed upon a ground of vertically ruled lines, showing stripes at the sides. A solid label curved with the oval above bounded by a colorless line and rounded at the ends, is inscribed "_Agriculture_" in outlined capitals. In small similar capitals in the upper left corner, "_Dept.

of_" in two lines. In the upper right corner in monogram, "_U. S._"

Plate impression, 19 by 25 mm., in color, on white paper, perforated 12.

1 cent, straw, 95,415 issued.

2 cents " 230,150 "

3 " " 435,050 "

6 cents, straw, 120,000 issued.

10 " " 95,265 "

12 " " 51,265 "

15 " " 54,050 "

24 " " 60,265 "

30 " " 82,265 "

By the appropriation acts each year from the Act of the 22 June, 1874, a certain amount was annually appropriated to each Department for the purchase from the Post Office Department of such of these official stamps as were necessary for the use of the Department and its subordinate officers. By the 9th Section of the Act of the XLIVth Congress, Session I, Chapter 287, approved the 15th of August, 1876, it was enacted.

"That the Secretaries respectively of the Departments of State, Treasury, War, Navy and Interior and the Attorney General are authorized to make requisition upon the Postmaster General for the necessary amount of postage stamps for the use of their Departments not exceeding the amount stated in the estimates submitted to Congress, and upon presentation of proper vouchers therefore at the Treasury, the amount thereof shall be credited to the appropriation for the Post Office Department for the same fiscal year."

This was the beginning of an entire change in the method of crediting the Post Office Department for work done in carrying official correspondence.

By the Act of XLIVth Congress, Session II, Chapter 103, approved March 30, 1877, the law was modified in the following terms:

Sec. 5. That it shall be lawful to transmit through the mail, free of postage any letters, packages or other matter relating exclusively to the business of the Government of the United States: Provided that every such letter or package to ent.i.tle it to pa.s.s free shall bear over the words "Official Business" an endors.e.m.e.nt, showing also the name of the Department, and if from a bureau or office, the names of the Department and bureau or office, as the case may be, whence transmitted. And if any person shall make use of any such official envelope to avoid the payment of postage on his private letter, package or other matter in the mail, the person so offending shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to a fine of three hundred dollars, to be prosecuted in any court of competent jurisdiction.

Sec. 6. That for the purpose of carrying this act into effect it shall be the duty of each of the Executive Departments of the United States to provide for itself and its subordinate officers the necessary envelopes, and in addition to the endors.e.m.e.nt designating the Department in which they are to be used, the penalty for the unlawful use shall be stated thereon.

Sec. 7. That Senators, Representatives and Delegates in Congress, the Secretary of the Senate and Clerk of the House of Representatives may send and receive through the mail all public doc.u.ments printed by order of Congress, and the name of each Senator, Representative, Delegate, Secretary of the Senate, and Clerk of the House, shall be written thereon with the proper designation of the office he holds, and the provisions of this section shall apply to each of the persons mentioned therein until the first day of December following the expiration of their terms of office.

By this act the use of official stamps upon mail matter _from_ the Departments, bureaus and offices was practically abolished, but official stamps continued to be used by postmasters and other subordinate officers in their mail matter _to_ the Departments or each other on official business.

By the 29th Section of the Act of the XLVth Congress, Chapter 180, approved March 3d, 1879, it was enacted that,--

"The provisions of the 5th and 6th Sections of the Act ent.i.tled, An Act Establishing Post Routes and for other purposes, approved March 3d, 1877, for the transmission of official mail matter, be and they are hereby extended to all officers of the United States Government, and made applicable to all official mail matter transmitted between any of the officers of the United States, or between any such officer and either of the Executive Departments or officers of the Government, the envelopes of such matter in all cases to bear appropriate endors.e.m.e.nts containing the proper designation of the office from which the same is transmitted, with a statement of the penalty for their misuse.

And the provisions of said 5th and 6th Sections are hereby likewise extended and made applicable to all official mail matter sent from the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution. Provided, that this Act shall not extend or apply to pension agents, or other officers who receive a fixed allowance for their services, including expenses for postage."

In his report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878, D. M. Key, Postmaster General, had already stated that,--

"The amount of matter sent through the mails free is very large, adding greatly to our expenditures and giving us no revenue. The Franking Privilege has been restored to the members and chief officers of Congress, so as to allow them to send free almost anything which they were ever allowed to transmit through the mails free, except letters. Tons upon tons of books, doc.u.ments, seeds, shrubs and the like are placed in our mails free of cost, on this score. The official letters of the Executive Departments of the general Government, their doc.u.ments, etc., go free through the mails."

The operation of the act of 1879, however, greatly increased the amount of free matter, and decreased the use of official stamps. The Post Office Department discontinued their use entirely. In a circular dated, Washington, D. C., April 22nd, 1879, and signed by A. D. Hazen, third a.s.sistant Postmaster General, it is stated that:

"The Department will begin the issue on May 1st next, of envelopes for official business which will secure the free transmission through the mails of all official matter and which are intended to supercede the Post Office envelopes now in use, as well as official postage stamps and official stamped envelopes. Accordingly the issue of official stamps and official stamped envelopes will be discontinued on and after the date named. * * * The stock of post office envelopes now in the hands of postmasters will continue until exhausted to be used as heretofore by the attachment of official postage stamps. So also official stamped envelopes now in the hands of postmasters at Presidential offices will be used as heretofore until exhausted."

This circular, of course, applies only to stamps, etc., of the Post Office Department. The other Departments continued to use them for certain purposes, though none were issued to the Executive Department.

The report of the Postmaster General for the year ending June 30th, 1885, says:

"The use of official stamps and stamped envelopes was wholly discontinued by this Department and substantially so by the other Departments on the 30th of June, 1879, under the Act authorizing the use of official penalty envelopes."

By the Act of the XLVIIIth Congress, Session I, Chapter 234, Section 3, approved July 5, 1884, the provisions of the Act of 1879, were substantially re-enacted with the addition that any Department or officer authorized to use the penalty envelopes, might enclose them to any person from whom an answer was requested, and might register any letter required by law, or the regulations to be registered free, and might receive any letter partly paid free, and added that:

"Section 3915 of the Revised Statutes of the United States so far as the same relates to stamps and stamped envelopes for official purposes is hereby repealed."

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 2 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 71 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 a.s.sistant 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.

Large, oblong, rectangular seals, having in the middle a circular disk with ground of fine concentric circles, so broken as to present the appearance of white rays, bounded by two heavier, but still fine colored lines, separated by a colorless line, and and a broad colorless band with exterior colored line, inscribed in plain block, colored capitals, above "_Stamp Here_," below, "_Date_" and "_Place of Mailing_" separated by a small maltese cross on each side. On each side of this is a ground of horizontal lines bordered by a heavy colored line with ornamental triangles of solid color, with colorless geometric lines forming the corners. Outside all a single colored line. On the ground in three lines of colored capitals, on each side are the inscriptions: on the left, reading from the bottom to the top, "_Post Office_," "_Department_"; on the right, reading from the top to the bottom, "_United States_," "_of America_"; in the upper corner triangles "_U. S._" in monogram; in the lower, "_P. O. D._" in white capitals. Across the middle of the whole stamp in large block capitals 8 mm. high and shaded by horizontal lines is the word "_Registered_."

Plate impression, 71 by 39 mm., printed in color, on white paper, perforated 12.

No value, green.