Historedia
AmericasEvent

The United States issues its first postage stamps

When
1847
Where
New York City; Congress
Episodes
2

The United States issued its first official postage stamps on July 1, 1847, in denominations of five and ten cents. This issuance followed the 1845 Act establishing uniform postal rates, which made standardized prepayment feasible. The stamps were sold initially in New York City, marking the transition from recipient-paid postage to universal prepayment.

Episodes

  1. 3 March 1847 · CongressCongressional Authorization

    Congress passed an act on March 3, 1847, authorizing nationwide stamp production.

  2. 1 July 1847 · New York CityFirst Stamp Issue

    Official US stamps were sold in New York City on July 1, 1847, in five and ten cent denominations.

Background and detail

Background. Prior to 1847, US postal service relied on stampless letters paid by recipients or private carriers. The 1845 Act established uniform rates, creating a precondition for standardized stamps. Although Congress authorized nationwide stamp production in 1847, postmasters had already printed provisional issues in 1845 and 1846 to facilitate prepayment under the new uniform rates.

Legislation and Contract. Congress passed an act on March 3, 1847, providing for the issuance of stamps. The Postmaster-General immediately contracted the New York City engraving firm Rawdon, Wright, Hatch, and Edson to produce the stamps. This legislative action formalized the shift from provisional local issues to a national system of adhesive postage stamps.

Denominations and Deployment. The first US stamp issue consisted of five and ten cent denominations, matching the 1845 rate structure for distances under 300 miles and between 300 and 3,000 miles. These stamps were offered for sale on July 1, 1847, in New York City, with Boston receiving them the next day. No 2-cent value was issued for drop letters.

People involved

Sources

  1. Postage stamps and postal history of the United States Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-26

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.