Thereafter, other types of stamps were issued for more types of postal services and federal revenue gathering. Special-use stamps would appear in the next decade to pay fees for the registration of valuable letters and the taxation of documents and proprietary articles (to glean revenue to pay for the Civil War). The future of postage stamps was guaranteed. Public usage was predictably low until the 1850s, when two congressional acts not only dropped rates and increased mailing distances but also mandated prepayment of postage on domestic letters. postal rates were initially set at five and ten cents. Post Office Department headquarters in Washington, D.C., for dispersal to postmasters. For almost fifty years the Post Office Department would permanently assign an agent to Philadelphia to oversee the secure storage, use, and destruction of the nation's postage printing plates and the shipment of full sheets of stamps to I.S. And the imagery used on money-heads of state and federal symbols-had a natural application to this new product. The craftsmen who created coinage and bills were the same as those who produced stamps. Philadelphia, which had been the seat of the new government and the site of the Constitutional Convention, was also home to the U.S. When the United States formally initiated the use of pre-paid postage stamps in 1847, the small engraving and printing firms of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, competed for the Post Office Department contract to design and produce the few stamp issues required by the fledgling postal system. They symbolize the authority of the agency handling public communication. They reveal the mailing status and the country of origin of the cover on which they are affixed. They are the receipt for pre-payment of a specific level of service afforded the customer. Whether they are issued by government postal systems or private, competitive carriers, stamps are at the center of philately.
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