Charles Haviland Mekeel History of the Postage Stamps of the St. Louis Postmaster, 1845-1847

Annotation

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The forerunner of the postage stamp in the United States was the hand-stamp marks of various descriptions placed upon the letters to show the amount of the postage together with the word Paid, Due or Collect to indicate whether the postage had been prepaid or was to be collected upon delivery. The hand-stamp dated postmark was of much earlier origin than that of the adhesive stamp, and prior to all hand-stamps we find the endorsements in ink upon letters, of the place, date of mailing, amount of postage and a word to indicate whether the postage had been prepaid or was to be collected. The introduction of the use of the adhesive postage stamp in Great Britain in 1840 was followed by agitation in the United States Congress looking toward the introduction of cheap postage and the issuing of postage stamps in this country.<br><br>The proposed reform met with opposition, as all reforms do, and it was some years before much was acomplished.<br><br>The local express and messenger companies first introduced the use of adhesive postage stamps in the prepayment of mail matter in the United States.