The British appointed postmasters,Įstablished rates, and introduced postmarks. coin of the realm, but difficult to come by, so this pecuniary problem hadĪ tendency to stifle the volume of letters mailed. System of pounds, shillings and pence were the norm in the colonies, literally These Acts establish the government as the only lawful provider of theĬountrys postal system: in other words, a monopoly. Proclamation of July 31, 1635, Patent Roll (Chancery) 11 Car 1. Three British Acts that ultimately had effect on theĪ Proclamation for the Setling of the Lre Office of England and Scotland. As Britain developed its own postal system, it eventually applied it While colonial postal system was ever so slow in developing, the roots were deep Often by boat along the eastern seaboard. Commerical exchange within and between colonies was most Native Americans, slaves, and servants were all impressed to deliver Postal service in the American colonies began in the private inns andĬoffee houses of seventeenth-century seaports.

The British colonies in North America had no organized mail service in the earlyġ600s. Incidentally, worlds first postage stamp was the British 1840 The 1847 issue included both a 5 cent and a 10 cent Office issued postage stamps, the stamps themselves were first sent to some few post Manuscript postmarks were used after the United States Post Privilege so you might see a manuscript marking like this: ∿ree, JohnĬalhoun, Sec of War. This franking privilege was applied to mail being directed

Goverment officials and local postmasters had the franking Before that time, allĭomestic mail was stampless with the rates, dates and origin of the letterīeing either written by hand (manuscript) or sometimes in combination with a The United States issued its first postage stamps in 1847. Were on a per letter basis, rather than weight. The ship fee, including the ship rate on letters for delivery at the port of entry, There were ship fees which were also added (i.e. There were double and triple rates as the Mail sent from one place in the west to another place in the west. Rates were adopted in 1847 for mail to or from the Pacific Coast and in 1848 for United States zone rates were modified in 1845 to reduce the number of zones to only zone rates were stable from 1816 (with a minor change in the 151 to 400 United States postage rates varied according to the distance a letter was to beĬarried from the post office where it entered the mail to its final destination. There may be many variables in determining the correct answer to your

Sheets) however we caution you to carefully examine the rates and time periods Dating old covers (envelopes and folded letter

Us airmail 5 cent stamp