Source Of Uspod Seal?

I am looking for any information on the source of the USPOD seal (top row) .
Thanks in advance,
Don

I believe it is cut from an envelope.

Eric

I agree with the direction Eric takes. The seal was used for a long period of time of lots of documents and other USPOD-related items.

Here it is in 1855 embossed into the front cover of J. Holbrook's "Ten Years Among the Mail Bags" (1-15/16" in diameter)


Here is the title page of the January 1887 Postal Guide, (1-13/16" diameter) with no printing on the back side of the page to show in a trimmed copy, used on the title page for many years..


Although yours appears to be blue. I suspect there will be several "matches".

That particular seal was used from 1837 to 1970 on many POD documents. I can't find the pic but have seen it on Postmaster commission/appointment documents.

Every use I have seen on a postmaster appointment document is blind-embossed (rather than inked/printed) - either directly onto the certificate or onto a gold-foil seal. Regardless, it covers long period of time. I would like to see a printed version of the seal for this use.

The seal is blind stamped on each commission dated through a James W Marshall Commission dated July 11, 1874.

The next example in my collection is a Marshall Jewell Commission dated April 15, 1875, which has a blue embossed seal added.



A few months later, another Marshal Jewell commission dated Aug 18, 1875, has a similar red seal.



The next example is from a David M Key commission dated Nov 22, 1879, with a green seal. Key commissions are also known with the red seal.



The first observed example of the seal in a gold foil is seen on a Horace Maynard commission dated Jan 28, 1881



This gold seal was used consistently through the commission by Frank W.Hitchcock, the last one in my collection is dated July 12, 1912.

Shortly thereafter, with the beginning of Albert S Burleson's term (1914), the format of these commissions was standardized to a smaller size, and the seal was again blindstamped.

The three colored seals seem to be used in a random manner, that is, the examples I have examined don't seem to follow a pattern. However, the sample size I have to work with is obviously fairly small.

Mike

Mike,
Good to have more data on the colored seals. Much appreciated. If I read between the lines, all of the appointments you know of have an embossed seal, and none printed.

I don't have my modest accumulation fully at hand, but do have this later add-on seal on an appointment dated December 2, 1918, with facsimile signature of Woodrow Wilson and real signature of PMG Burleson.


So I think looking at appointments will not find a match to Don's print.

Going back in time, the Postmaster commissions beginning with Joseph Habersham dating between 1798 and a July 4 1804 commission by Gideon Granger show the following paper seal, that appears to be embossed into the commission. The figure is supposed to be Mercury, the winged messenger.



Gideon Granger commissions dating 1808 to 1818 (Return J Meigs, Jr) have the same mercury, but are now simply blind stamped, no paper seal involved.



The embossed image is difficult to see as scanned, the following is enhanced a little to show the design.




The commissions for Return J Meigs, Jr from 1822 have a different embossed seal.




This embossed seal design is on commissions through an Amos Kendall commission dated July 1834.

However, a commission dated Dec 13, 1838 has a new embossed seal design, the "Post Rider".

Mike

John,

All of these previous examples were from Postmaster General appointments.

Presidential Appointments from Martin van Buren to U S Grant have a paper seal embossed into the document, with a design with what I'll call the "Federal Eagle" for lack of a proper name.



Starting with Grover Cleveland in 1885, there is a gold seal with a "Post Rider", with a ribbon. I've seen red and blue ribbons, again with no apparent order. This examples is from 1887.



The Post Rider seal appears to date from the time when the Post Office Department was elevated to Department Status, so there may be some later U S Grant commissions with the Post Rider seal. I'm taking these from scans of items in my collection as they are easier to access.

Edited to correct the above. Ulysses S Grant commission dated through March 1874 have the Seal of the United States affixed, and the text confirms this. His commissions beginning with June 1874 have the Seal of the Post Office Department affixed. I have images of these with both the red and green seals like shown in later examples in previous posts, but none are of sufficient resolution to crop and post.. Mike

I'm not sure when they discontinued the use of the ribbon, but it was somewhere about the time that Wm Taft was President, as my examples do not have a ribbon or indication there ever was one.

Edited to correct the above. The archive I have for images of Theodore Roosevelt commissions has the last example with a ribbon dated January 1904. All examples after that date have no ribbon, and not sign there was one present. Mike

The following seal is from a William Taft commission, and the design appears to be the same, The same seal is also present on the Woodrow Wilson commission.



I have not tried to do an exhaustive comparison of the gold seals with the Post Rider, but I believe that there are several different minor variations. Such a study is hampered by a lack of quality images.

Postmaster Commissions from Calvin Coolidge Warren G Harding forward were again blind stamped. This one is from 1925. [Edited to correct President]


Mike

John,

I am pretty sure that your Woodrow Wilson commission is actually Presidentially signed.

My understanding is that the Presidents personally signed these through the middle of Calvin Coolidge's term. After January 1, 1927, the signatures were printed on the document when the blanks were printed. The Postmaster General continued to sign these until the end of the USPOD era in 1970.

Mike

I wish my Wilson signature were real, but it is not. I have seen his about half and half and have made direct comparisons of mine to two others (one facsimile and one real). I wish!

John

For comparison, here are signatures on my two Woodrow Wilson commissions.

PRES_Comm(1917-01-22)(Woodrow Wilson)(Chester A Moore PM at Howard PA)(4)



PRES_Comm(1919-11-19)(Woodrow Wilson)(Nora L Pickering PM at Peckville PA)(4)



I am NOT an expert
Mike