Question About Scott #67, #75 And #76

I cant remember why this issue [5¢ denomination] was printed and for what rate it was supposed to pay? I was kind of hoping one of you classic era guru's could point me in the right direction please? Thank you.

Copied from 1847USA

Early use of the 5¢ stamp saw greatest use as prepayment of the 5¢ open mail rate. It also saw heavy usage as a make-up rate stamp, for example to pay the 15¢ rate to France or doubled to pay the 10¢ rate. Single usages of the 5¢ stamp on cover are rare.

Yup.

The buffs (and their various shades) were changed to a darker shade because the buff shade was considered to be too light to see the design.

Generally the most common use that you'll see these stamps on is foreign mail, generally making up 15c rates to France or on Bremen-Hamburg mail to German states prior to the 15c Lincoln being issued. There was a newspaper article clipping that I saw online from when the first 5c imperfs came out that basically stated this is what the stamp was to be used for; making up foreign mail rates.

I actually have a pair of 10c 61s and a 5c brown to England (almost certainly an overpayment of the 24c rate) and it's not an easy destination to find on a 5c. Regardless of the value and perceived scarcity of a 5c Buff, finding one on a cover going to France is relatively easy.

Finding a well centered one on a Payen cover? Now that's a nice item to have.

Concerning the Five Cent stamp of 1856-1861:

In the 3rd section of the act of March 3, 1855 it provides for the registration of valuable letters in the payment of of a registration fee of five cents effective after July 1, 1855. A notice headed "The New Registry System" in February 1867 states that the fee is to be paid in stamps, attached to the letter and cancelled instead of money. So up to that date the fee was collected in money. Of course there were exceptions.

Since 1849 mail to France under treaty was 5 cents, using multiple stamps until the 5 cent stamp was issued in Jan 1856. The earliest date used on cover is March 24 thought to be 1856 from Philly to Halifax.

Information compiled by Henry Hill, 1955

Art

There was a 5c rate that is mentioned in Starnes but that was in existence for only 8 months; from June 1847 until February 1848. It's an earlier period than I'm familiar with however. I do believe that the 5c rate was to the French port only and inland French postage was paid by the recipient.

To be fair, a lot of credit is due to Hargest and Starnes for clarifying Pre-UPU Foreign mail rates, until their work was published an awful lot of misinformation was out there (which is why you see a good number of old faked covers where the rates make no sense at all).

There was a 20c direct rate from July of 1851 until the 15c US-French convention took effect in April of 1857.

The British Open Mail rate of either 5c (British contract steamer; 3c US postage plus 2c ship fee) or 21c (American contract steamer; 3c US postage plus 18c ocean postage to Britain) was also often used to France during this period; this rate got the letter to the point of entry into the British mails and was collect from that point forward.

The 15c French convention was in effect until January of 1870 when it expired, for some time after that there was technically no convention between America and France although there was a 10c "Phantom rate". Again, I collect 1861s so I'm not terribly familiar with the earlier and later periods.

Many thanks as this has been more than enlightening to me and of course my search. Now I have a better idea or criteria to better help my research and quest. It will give me a good starting point and that's what I was after. Again thank you very much! -Jeff

ILS,

If foreign mails interest you, I would strongly suggest that you pick up a copy of the Hargest book as well as the Starnes book on rates.

Leonard Hartmann should have both.