1855 10¢ Issue

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BackgroundThe Act of March 3, 1855, stated that effective April 1, 1855, the rate for letters conveyed a distance of 300 miles or greater would be changed from 6¢ to 10¢ per 1/2 oz. The short time span from passage to institution of the bill resulted in the immediate need for a 10¢ U.S. stamp for mail to and from the west coast of the United States. Toppan, Carpenter, Casilear & Co., the Company who had in 1851 been awarded the contract for producing U.S. stamps, was immediately told to prepare 10¢ stamps for design and production. The design chosen for the 10¢ stamp was not perfect. In fact, it was not symmetrical. Upon examination (see image below), one can see that the top and bottom of the design is not horizontal resulting in the design being higher on the right side and lower on the left side.

During the span from 1855 to 1859, two different plates were produced for the 10¢ stamp. Each plate produced a sheet of stamps consisting of 2 Panes of 100 stamps, 10 stamps across by 10 stamps down, a left side and a right side with a centerline dividing them. Plate 1 was in use from May of 1855 until May of 1859, while plate 2 was used from late May of 1859 until demonitization in 1861. In order to be able to determine one must understand the differences in these two plates.

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P l a t e  # 1The full design was not transferred onto all of the reliefs resulting in different “types” of 10¢ stamps. Three different reliefs were used to produce the full plate. These three reliefs result in the formation of three different types of 10¢ stamps with a 4^th type occurring when lines were re-entered onto the plate in some instances.

Relief A was used in rows 1, 2, 4, 6, & 8 [excluding the misplaced relief positions]. This relief shows the full design at the top of the stamp and an incomplete design at the bottom of the stamp. This relief (when no re-entry occurred) resulted in the stamp being a Type II or Scott #14.

Relief B was used in rows 3, 5, 7 & 9. [Additional B reliefs occurred when the B relief was entered into a position where the A relief belonged. These aptly named “Misplaced Transfers” occurred at the first two stamps of the left pane (Positions 1L1 & 2L1) and the 3rd stamp on the right pane (3R1).]
This relief shows incomplete designs at both the top and the bottom of the stamp. This relief (when no re-entry occurred) resulted in the stamp being a Type III or Scott #15.

Relief C was used only in row 10. This relief shows an incomplete design at the top of the stamp and an almost complete design at the bottom of the stamp. There were no re-entries made in the 10th rows of Plate #1.

In 8 positions of the total 200 stamps on the plate, re-entries were made at either the top, bottom or in 1 case, both top and bottom of the plate. These 8 re-entries are known as Type IV 10¢ stamps and are designated as Scott #16. They are the most rare of the 10¢ stamps. The full plate is shown below (click the image to enlarge):

We can now see that the 200 stamps from Plate #1 contain the following:
Scott # 13 – Type I – 20 stamps = 10% of stamps
Scott # 14 – Type II – 93 stamps = 46.5% of stamps
Scott # 15 – Type III – 79 stamps = 39.5% of stamps
Scott # 16 – Type IV – 8 stamps = 4% of stamps

The item above is the 2^nd largest imperforate multiple known from Plate #1 and the largest multiple known containing Type IV stamps. Positions 42-45L1 to 72-75L1. This multiple contains 5 Type II stamps, 6 Type III stamps and 5 Type IV stamps.

The cover above is an example of a Type II (Scott #14) used to pay the 10¢ rate from New York to San Francisco by steamship. The stamp is tied by the well known New York Ocean Mail cancel that was used to designate mail bound to California via Panama.

In 1857, while still using plate #1 to produce the 10¢ stamps, the government informed Toppan, Casilear, Carpenter & Co. that they wished U.S. stamps to be perforated prior to their distribution to post offices. The perforating of complete sheets made from this existing plate resulted in the production of all new stamps (as considered by collectors). Thus, Types I, II, III & IV which prior to perforation were Scott #âs 13, 14, 15 & 16 respectively, now became Scott #âs 31, 32, 33 & 34. The only difference between Scott # 13 and Scott # 31 is the presence of perforations. The same holds true for the other Scott #s respective of their counterparts.

Above is an envelope with a block of 6 of the 10¢ perforated stamps of 1857. The plate positions of these stamps correspond to 74-75L1 to 94-95L1. Thus, this multiple contains all 4 types of the 10¢ stamp used on cover. The 60¢ paid for the double Prussian Closed mail rate from Pine Lakes Wisconsin to Germany on December 2, 1858.

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P l a t e  # 2In 1859, Toppan, Carpenter, Casilear & Co. retired the Plate #1 that had been used for production of the 10¢ stamp. They produced a 2^nd plate which was distinctly different than the original in die design. Types I, II, III and IV were not present on this second plate. Instead, the only design present is one where the design is incomplete on the left and right sides of the die while complete at both top and bottom. This stamp can be easily determined by the absence of the 3 pearls at the lower left hand side or lower right hand side of the stamp design. This stamp is designated as Type V and referred to as Scott #35. This stamp was in production for over 2 years and is the most common of all perforated 10¢ stamps.

A block of 12 of the Type V 10¢ stamp of 1859. This block is the 5th largest mint multiple known of Scott #35.

Scott #35 Type V 10¢ stamp used on a railroad propaganda cover from Victoria, Vancouver Island to Connecticut. In 1859, Vancouver Island was not part of Canada but was instead, a separate colony of the United Kingdom. The Vancouver Island colonial postage was paid in cash while the U.S. stamp paid the transcontinental rate. This covers original endorsement to be sent by overland mail was crossed off resulting in the cover traveling by ocean mail from San Francisco via Panama to New York.

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Helpful Links
The Swedish Tiger’s US Stamp Site Illustrated Guide
Siegel Encyclopedia (1857-60 Issue)
Civil War Timeline, at Siegel Encyclopedia

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