Saturday, April 21, 2012

U. S. Transportation Stamps (1981-1995)













Here I have maximum cards with two of the stamps in the U. S. transportation coil series (1981-1995).

The 25-cent Bread Wagon stamp was issued November 22, 1986 and was intended for use in post office vending machines for mailing parcels and overweight letters. The only use for a solo 25-cent stamp was on foreign postcards to destinations other than Canada and Mexico, but the demand for the 25-cent increased when the letter rate increased to twenty-five cents in 1988.

The 23-cent Lunch Wagon was issued April 12, 1991. This denomination fulfilled the second-ounce first-class rate.

There were a large number of stamps in this series. The stamps had a similar style, but were issued at different times. Many values were needed for various classes of mail and numerous postal rate changes during the life of the series. The following list is from Wikipedia (ordered by denomination, not issue date):
1¢ Omnibus
2¢ Locomotive
3¢ Handcar
3¢ Conestoga
3.4¢ School Bus
4¢ Stagecoach
4¢ Steam Carriage
4.9¢ Buckboard
5¢ Motorcycle
5¢ Milk wagon
5¢ Circus wagon
5¢ Canoe
5.2¢ Sleigh
5.3¢ Elevator
5.5¢ Star Route Truck
5.9¢ Bicycle
6¢ Tricycle
7.1¢ Tractor
7.4¢ Baby Buggy
7.6¢ Carreta
8.3¢ Ambulance
8.4¢ Wheel Chair
8.5¢ Tow Truck
9.3¢ Mail Wagon
10¢ Canal Boat
10¢ Tractor Trailer
10.1¢ Oil Wagon
10.9¢ Hansom Cab
11¢ Caboose
11¢ Stutz Bearcat
12¢ Stanley Steamer
12.5¢ Pushcart
13¢ Patrol Wagon
13.2¢ Coal Car
14¢ Iceboat
15¢ Tugboat
16.7¢ Popcorn Wagon
17¢ Electric Auto
17¢ Dog Sled
17.5¢ Racing Car
18¢ Surrey
20¢ Fire Pumper
20¢ Cable Car
20¢ Cog Railway
20.5¢ Fire Engine
21¢ Railway Mail Car
23¢ Lunch Wagon
24.1¢ Tandem Bike
25¢ Bread Wagon
32¢ Ferry Boat
$1 Sea Plane

Pictures of the various stamp designs and more details can be found here and on the Arago website.

This is a post for Sunday Stamps at Viridian's Postcard Blog




5 comments:

  1. These are great stamps. I've spent some time checking out that Wiki link and can only identify the 4c stagecoach as in my collection. The maxicards are superb.

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  2. I have seen some of these on various letters, though not all of course. I did not know htere were so many in the series. Great cards as usual. thanks for joining in.

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  3. These brings back memories of the ice cream trucks, and the milkman truck 'till my early teens. Gone is that era now...

    As far as these goes, a fine collection to own. Their design is exquisite!!
    :)~
    HUGZ

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  4. The series sounds wonderful. The bread wagon brings back memories of my childhood in Ireland

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  5. What a wonderful piece of social history and the maxi cards certainly bring it alive. I like the thought of fresh bread being delivered trotting down the street. What an extensive, and interesting, series.

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