ISSUE 185 - May 1, 2026 - Stamp News Online Magazine
The Best of Mekeel’s:
United States Postage Rates
by J. W. Sampson
(From Mekeel’s Weekly, Feb. 23, 1918, with photos added)
Chapter I–1845 to 1850.
From 1827 to 1845, a period of eighteen years, United States postage rates remained unchanged, regardless of the country’s industrial and commercial development, and marked improvements in transportation.
At the beginning of this period the mails were carried entirely by stagecoach and by postmen on horseback, overland, and to a limited extent by steamboats on inland waterways. But by 1845, there were over 4,000 miles of . . .
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