Carrier Stamps On Cover

I was working-up a new purchase and thought I would post some carrier fee covers. Prior to the start of free city delivery in 1863, letter writers needed to carry their letters to the post office or in cities with a carrier service they could give the letter to the carrier (or they could use a private local post). The carrier typically charged 1¢ or 2¢ for the service.

The postmasters in several cities issued semi-official carrier stamps.



Boston - Scott 3LB1








New York City 6LB9, 6LB10, and 6LB11




Philadelphia 7LB11

In 1851 the government issued 2 carrier stamps. The Franklin carrier (which is rare on cover) and the eagle carrier




The eagle carrier stamp was used primarily in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Washington DC, and Kensington, PA

The eagle carrier was mostly used in just a few cities, so most covers show the carrier fee paid with the 1851, 1857 and 1861 government postage stamps.




1857 issue 3¢ letter rate with carrier fee



1857 issue 10¢ transcontinental rate with carrier fee




1861 issue 10¢ transcontinental rate with carrier fee




1861 issue 10¢ transcontinental rate with carrier fee - 3 #65 stamps and 2 #63 stamps

Very nice stuff and interesting post.

I like the 11c rates.

This is a scarce mixed-issue use from Cincy.

A Roosevelt die proof of the Franklin carrier.

Hi TX - it took me a moment to figure out why you were referring to the LO2 cover as mixed-issue because I was on my phone and it wasn't obvious that it was 3¢ 1857 perfed stamp. It looks like that carries a 50% premium in the Scott catalog compared to a cover with a #11.

spqr - Howdy. Yes I should have been clearer.

One thing I noticed about your NYC duplex cancels is that for a 2 stamp cover the CDS kills one stamp while the killer gets the other. Nothing mind boggling there - just interesting given all prior history about using killers to cancel stamps and leaving CDSs as readable avoiding the stamp. Anyway no biggie, just interesting.

The absolute "don't use the CDS as a killer" edict comes along in mid-1860, which makes the 1+1+3+3+3 transcontinental 1861 cover going counter to regulations.

A reprint of that Franklin carrier stamp also appears on a souvenir card, B-301, although the proof that txstamp posted is a much better print.







Were these adhesive stamps eventually replaced by rubber stamped markings when the service became cost-free?

the stamps were to indicate payment of the carrier fee. The handstamp markings after the start of free carrier service were transit markings to document when the cover was processed through the carrier department

With covers involving multiple stamps such as the cross continent usage, it's not very unusual to find them cancelled like this. Especially from a large city with a lot of mail.