Card Proofs of the
19th Century

Special Delivery Issues
1885-1893

American Bank Note Company (ABNC)

Along with the regular issues, the Special Delivery stamps were created as card proofs at the same time. The color for Scott E3 was decreed by the USPOD as a measure to prevent confusion with the one cent Columbian stamp and was issued as part of the Columbian Exposition series of stamps.⁴⁸   It is sometimes referred to as the sixteenth stamp of the series.

Scott Number	Denomination	Color	Year
E1P4	Ten cents	Blue	1885
E2P4	Ten cents	Blue	1888
E3P4	Ten cents	Orange	1893

Postage Due Issue
1879

American Bank Note Company (ABNC)

As was the case with the Special Delivery stamps, card proofs for the Postage Due issues were prepared as part of the card proof sets and prepared at the same time as the regular postage issues.

Postage due stamps were required by USPOD order beginning in 1879 to ensure the accountability of monies collected when postage was not prepaid and thus collected when delivered. Prior to the mandatory use of postage due stamps, “…there was nothing, beyond the honesty of the postmaster, to insure its delivery to the government.”⁴⁹  

There are three series, distinguished by color. This first series was printed in brown. Printing is determined by thickness of card. Anyone wishing more information on this is referred to Greg Vaupotic’s article “Thickness of the Cardboard Proofs by Printing” which appeared in the January 2003 issue of the United States Stamp Society journal.

The following is provided for the 1879 issue:

Scott Number	Denomination	Color
J1P4	One cent	Brown
J2P4	Two cents	Brown
J3P4	Three cents	Brown
J4P4	Five cents	Brown
J5P4	Ten cents	Brown
J6P4	Thirty cents	Brown
J7P4	Fifty cents	Brown

Postage Due Issue
1887

American Bank Note Company (ABNC)

The second issue of Postage Due stamps is distinguished from the other two series by its color. This is a red brown color and of the same design as the other two issues of card proofs.

The following information is germane to this issue:

Scott Number	Denomination	Color
J15P4	One cent	Red Brown
J16P4	Two cents	Red Brown
J17P4	Three cents	Red Brown
J18P4	Five cents	Red Brown
J19P4	Ten cents	Red Brown
J20P4	Thirty cents	Red Brown
J21P4	Fifty cents	Red Brown

Postage Due Issue
1889-1893

American Bank Note Company (ABNC)

This final series of Postage Due stamps is of the same design as the previous two issues and distinguished from them by the color, bright claret. As with the other two series, printing is determined by thickness of the card stock used.

The following information is provided for this series:

Scott Number	Denomination	Color
J22P4	One cent	Bright Claret
J23P4	Two cents	Bright Claret
J24P4	Three cents	Bright Claret
J25P4	Five cents	Bright Claret
J26P4	Ten cents	Bright Claret
J27P4	Thirty cents	Bright Claret
J28P4	Fifty cents	Bright Claret

⁴⁸ Luff, p. 198.
⁴⁹ Luff, 245.

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