Parcel post stamps of 1912-1913

1912-1913. Shortly before World War I, the United States Post Office Department issued a special series of twelve parcel post stamps. Their depiction of the mail handling operations of the time is highly unusual. However, the stamps were always less of a help than a hindrance. All twelve stamps were of similar shade and design, with similar frames and lettering around central vignettes. Postal clerks found it difficult to readily distinguish denominations. For example, the one cent and one dollar stamp differ only in the word “cent” or “dollar” between the big numerals at the bottom. Consequently, the issue of twelve stamps lasted less than a year.



For the collector interested in postal history, the four low values provide especially interesting flashbacks. The one-cent stamp shows a postal clerk sorting mail in front of a vast array of mailbags suspended from a semi-circular frame. The two-cent stamp shows a city carrier with his hands full of bundled letters and a pouch full of mail. Either this was a particularly busy day or the carrier was on a route with few relay boxes to permit him to carry a more reasonable quantity of mail. The three-cent stamps shows a postman aboard a moving mail car as he retrieves a full sack of mail picked up “on the fly” by the catcher arm. The most archaic scene in this group is on the four-cent stamp with its horse-drawn rural carrier. Perhaps the most interesting stamp of the series is the twenty-cent airmail stamp, which shows a primitive bi-plane not too far evolved from the original Wright flyer! Images courtesy National Postal Museum Library



Return to Previous Page