UNITED STATES LOCALS Overview

Return To Catalogue - United States Overview - Unidentified locals - Adam's to American Express Company - American Letter Mail to Blizzard Mail - D.O Blood & Co - Boyd City Express and Boyd's Dispatch - Bouton to Brigs - Broadway to Carters - Cheever&Towle to City Letter Express - City Mail Free Stamp to Cummings - Cuttings to Essex - Faunce's to Hall & Mill's - Hampton to Jefferson Market - Jenkins to McMillan - Hussey's local issues - Mason to Mills - Moody to Pomeroy - Price's to Smith - Spaulding to Sullivan's - Swarts - Teese's to Washington Despatch - Wells Fargo and Co - Westervelt to Zieber
Local issues in the Confederate States - Semi-official issues and Carriers - Postmaster issues part 1 - Postmaster issues part 2 - Postmaster issues part 3
Scott forgeries - bogus issues and forgeries of S.Allan Taylor

Note: on my website many of the pictures can not be seen! They are of course present in the cd's;
contact me if you want to purchase them: evert@klaseboer.com.

ATTENTION: many of the local stamps of the United States are reprints or forgeries! I have never seen an area with more forgeries, reprints and even bogus issues than the locals and carriers of the United States in even non-existing colors. If I do not specifically state that an item is genuine in this catalogue, then I'm not sure that it is!

Specialist distinguish between postmaster issues (official issues before the general issues of the United States in1847), locals, carriers, express company labels etc. A usefull introduction on locals, carriers etc. can be found on: http://www.pennypost.org/Collecting%20US%20Locals%20by%20Hahn%201976%20Updated.pdf.

The most common locals are those of Blood's, Boyd's, Hussey's and Swart's. Most others are rare to extremely rare. I have decided to list these stamps anyway (even if only a few copies are known), so collectors can be warned against the many forgeries of these stamps.

In the following table I have tried to assemble all the locals, carriers, postmaster and bogus issues known to me.

Sanitary fair stamps and Bazaar post

Sanitairy fair stamps are unofficial stamps issued by the Sanitary Fair Commission in order to raise funds for the Union troops (sometimes these stamps are considered as a forerunner of a red cross issue). The first sanitary fair stamp was issued in 1863 with inscription 'Young Ladies of Brooklyn Bazaar'. Examples:

Images obtained from a Rumsey auction

Brooklyn Sanitary Fair postage; green. A black stamp also seems to exist. Image obtained from a Rumsey auction. A first forgery doesn't have shading in the letters of 'FAIR'. A second forgery is described in the Scott catalogue ('T' and second 'A' of 'SANITARY' different)..

There are other sanitary fair stamps with inscription 'NATIONAL SAILORS FAIR' (10 c green, issued in 1864, sorry no picture available yet).

Bazaar Post Office

Three kinds of forgeries exist (listed in the Scott catalogue). This is probably one of these forgeries, the head of the eagle is very close to the 'T'

Another forgery; I've also seen it in the color blue.

The above stamp was issued in 1864 for a army relief bazaar in Albany, New York. A 10 c red and 10 c black exist. I have seen forgeries in the colours blue, black, green and red.

Stamps with inscription Tabernacle Fair were made by the forger Taylor.

(Image obtained from a Siegel auction)

Some other bazaar stamps with inscription 'Bazaar Post Office' stamp were issued in 1864 with an eagle in the design (value 10 c; colours blue, red or black). See image above.

Again another design with an eagle with the text 'CENTRAL FAIR POSTAGE SANITARY COMMISION' was also issued in 1864 (values 10 c blue, 20 c green and 30 c black); see image above.
Be careful when acquiring cancelled stamps (these stamps are worth about 10 times more in cancelled condition). Even quite recently (October 2002), unused stamps were for sale on E-bay, to show up one month later in cancelled condtion on the same internet auction platform ! (source: http://www.pcug.org.au/~sheryll/Forgeries/Fraud/Forgeries_article_Fraud.htm ). Reprints and proofs seem to exist in relative large quantities (also in bogus colors; source Scott catalogue).

Finally there exist some Soldier Fair stamps:

1) Inscription 'SOLDIERS FAIR Springfield Mass' (value 10 c lilac, 1864)

I'm not sure if this stamp is genuine.

Forgery.

Another forgery without the engraver's name at the bottom right hand side.

2) Inscription 'SOLDIERS FAIR STAMFORD' (value 15 c brown, 1864)

Forgeries exist, examples:

Forgeries of the Stamford Soldiers Fair, reduced sizes. When compared to the above image, the soldier is standing much straighter. The 'S' of 'CENTS' is also slanting. I've seen other colours of this forgery: light brown, green, black on light blue, black.

Express company labels

Examples:

(Fiske & Rice's Express, train: express company label, found on http://alphabetilately.com/US-trains-00.html )

At least one forgery is known of the Fiske&Rice label.

'Bigelow's Express', image found on http://alphabetilately.com/US-trains-00.html

Bigelow's Express operated in Boston (1848-51), it then sold its route to Fiske&Rice (see label above). No forgeries are known of this label.

RETURN STAMPS

Inscription 'IF NOT DELIVERED IN 6 DAYS RETURN TO NATIONAL LETTER RETURN ASSOCIATION CHICAGO'.

(Reduced size)

Essays of local stamps

Essay with image of Franklin, inscription 'ALBANY OFFICE POSTAGE' (I've also seen it in the colors black, red and brown) and another essay in a similar design. They were apparently made in Albany.

Later issues

1960, triangular stamp, 'Shrub oak (N.Y.) local post', trees

Army Frank Stamps

(Reduced sizes)

The above stamps with inscription 'ARMY FRANK OFFICIAL BUSINESS ONLY', are bogus issues. They were made in 1898 by a certain Major Brewster Cox Kenyon (1864-?). Remainders were sold in 1903. They only exist in the colours blue, red and brown (as above shown). This person also made the bogus Central American Steamship Co stamps.

College Labels

The next stamp has the inscription 'COLLEGE STAMP', I have no further information about its origins:

Literature

Larry Lyons: 'Identifier for Carriers, Locals, Fakes, Forgeries and Bogus Posts of the United States' (3 volumes)

Donald Scott Patton: 'The Private Local Posts of the United States', (1967)

I have unfortunately not yet been able to read one of the above books myself.

Scott Specialized Catalogue.

The carriers and locals society website: http://www.pennypost.org/

Copyright by Evert Klaseboer