Postal History

On November 9, 1998, the USPS issued an H-rate Uncle Sam’s Hat stamp to satisfy the First-Class Rate. An unissued Uncle Sam’s Hat stamp with a yellow background was later discovered in used condition, despite never being officially issued!

Mystic made stamp history on November 2, 2005, when we traded our 1¢ Z Grill for the unique Inverted Jenny Plate Number Block.

On October 24, 1951, the United Nations issued its first postage stamps. The UN is the only organization that’s neither a country or territory to issue its own postage stamps.

On October 23, 1962, the US Post Office Department unknowingly issued an unknown number of inverted Dag Hammarskjöld error stamps.  The fallout from this issue became known as Day’s Folly (after Postmaster General J. Edward Day).

One of the world’s most famous stamp engravers, Czeslaw Slania was born on October 22, 1921, in Czeladź near Katowice, Poland. He engraved more than 1,000 stamps during his lifetime for more than two dozen countries.

On October 18, 1994, the USPS issued a corrected Legends of the West stamp sheet after it was discovered they had made an error in their original design. It was one of the biggest stamp stories in years!

On October 16, 1926, the US hosted its second international philatelic exhibition in New York, New York. Among the show’s highlights was the issue of America’s first souvenir sheet.

On October 10, 1858, the first shipment of overland mail arrived in San Francisco. It completed its journey in 23 days, a vast improvement over previous services.

On October 9, 1874, some 22 nations met in Bern, Switzerland to form the General Postal Union (later renamed the Universal Postal Union or UPU). The UPU standardized mail service between countries and is one of the world’s oldest international organizations.