One day before James K. Polk’s inauguration as the nation’s eleventh pres-ident, Congress passed the Act of March 3, 1845, simplifying and reducing postal rates as of July 1. This profound change in the nation’s postal system set the stage for the introduction of adhesive stamps to prepay postage, a concept initiated in England in 1840 and proposed by Senator Daniel Webster in the same year, but not acted upon by Congress until 1847. The reaction to stamps on letters in 1845 is comparable to today’s prevailing ambivalence towards debit cards and digital commerce. Old habits, fears of counterfeiting and theft, and the slow grind of bureaucracy stifled development as much then as they do today.

Soon after the 1845 rates took effect, New York City’s progressive postmaster, Robert H. Morris, placed on sale new 5c stamps for use on letters posted in any of the city’s offices or boxes. Morris’s stamps were the first of the so-called postmasters’ provisionals, stamps issued at post offices before the first General Issue was authorized by Congress and issued in 1847. The New York provisional stamp was not only the first to appear, but it was the most elegantly executed and widely used among the group issued by eleven different offices between 1845 and 1847. The stamp, printed in black, bears George Washington’s portrait from an oil painting by Gilbert Stuart.

The Rawdon, Wright and Hatch firm’s experience in engraving and printing the New York provisional earned them the contract—without competition—for the first General Issue in 1847. Perhaps the most significant aspect of the New York provisional is how its success demonstrated the efficacy of adhesive postage stamps to the public and to Congress, paving the way for the 5c and 10c General Issue.

Beginning on July 12, 1845, and ending on January 7, 1847, RW&H made eighteen deliveries of sheets to the New York post office, for a total of 3,590 sheets of 40, or 143,600 stamps. Figures A and B show the original RW&H record of these delivery dates and sheet quantities, as well as separate billing entries for the engraved plate, 598 sheets of paper and gumming. This original record corrects an error originating in the Luff book and repeated by subsequent writers. Luff used a different set of record books, which contained a transcribing error that omitted 34 sheets from the total count. There were actually 3,590 sheets printed, including 1,000 delivered through October 3, 1845. The total number of stamps is 143,600 (not 142,240 as in the Luff book). The 3,590 figure divided by 6 (the number of impressions per sheet of paper) also fits with the 598 sheets of paper billed to Morris.

During this eighteen-month period there were changes in the paper used and in the manuscript application of control initials to each stamp. The twelve major and minor Scott Catalogue listings for the New York provisional reflect the specialized classification of paper colors and initial types.

In a speech before the Royal Philatelic Society of London, John R. Boker, Jr. estimated that 6,000 New York provisional stamps survived, of which 300 were uncancelled. Philip T. Wall later modified the count to 5,500 surviving copies, of which 500 were uncancelled. An accurate census has been maintained over the years—the Levi-Wall-Farrington and Shearer records—and the apparent rarity of certain varieties, multiples and condition grades can be verified with census figures. The Zoellner collection presents a number of important and demonstrably rare items, but it does not attempt to show every listed variation in paper and signature. Rather, its purpose is to illustrate how Postmaster Morris’s stamp closely relates to the first General Issue, in both its style and usage.

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