The Three Cent Trime Coin, which was introduced in 1851 for postage purposes, remembers the first adhesive stamp produced in the United States 175 years ago.
From the American Journal of Philately of June 30, 1894, an article provided some of the history of the private carrier service that introduced the adhesive stamp to America:
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The History of the First Introduction of Penny Postage into the United States.
By Charles Windsor, Son of the Founder of the “City Despatch Post” of the City of New York.
This Post was known by the name of “Greig’s Post,” and was the very first introduction of the late Sir Rowland Hill’s system, adhesive stamps, the greatly reduced charge and other advantages much required at that period in the United States.
The founder, sole proprietor, manager and director was Henry Thomas Windsor, a London merchant, then on a visit to the United States, and residing temporarily in the suburb of Hoboken.
My father sailed from Liverpool in the month of April, 1841, and reached New York in May. It was his intention to pass one or, if possible, two years in the United States. Up to the Autumn of that year he spent his time in visiting his friends and correspondents in Boston, Baltimore and other places, and then proceeded to see some of the grand scenery and wonders of this marvelous country.
On his journeys it struck him that the Postal arrangements were very inefficient and the Postage charges excessive. On his return to New York he mentioned the matter to his friend Mr. Greig, who listened to him with great interest, which increased when my father further intimated that he had a mind to venture on the formation of a Penny Post for the city, on the lines of Sir Rowland Hill’s system; that he had carefully watched the effect of that system through the years 1840-41, and had great confidence in its ultimate result, but, he added, “I shall want someone to lend me his name.”
Mr. Greig at once offered his own, adding that he could be of no further service as the subject was quite new to him. My father satisfied him that he would attend to the actual work of the project, but that he had more confidence in the success of his Post if brought out in the name of an American who was locally known, than of himself who was a Londoner and a comparative stranger.
Having agreed to this arrangement they set to work and the Post was started on the first day of the year 1842. I recollect my father telling me how he strained every nerve to get the Post in full working order before St. Valentine’s Day, which he expected would be a very heavy day.
And so it turned out, for the Post was inundated with letters, and, arrangements not being thoroughly completed, so many complaints of irregularity were made, that he greatly feared it would be the death-blow of the Post.
His fears, however, proved groundless, for the public continued to support the undertaking, which was attended with such unmistakable success, that it would seem not only to have excited the jealousy (if I may use the word) of the Government, but also to have stimulated the New York postmaster.
The Government soon proscribed the continuance of the Post, asserting it to be an infringement of governmental rights.
Although I at first thought it resumed its usefulness, I now feel confident that it was forever abandoned, as, reckoning the short time it was in existence not to have exceeded six months, there would be left only one month for the arrangement of the “United States City Despatch Post,” which was announced and commenced on the first of August, owing to the loud and persistent call of the citizens for the resumption of the prohibited Post. Thus this first Post should be regarded as unique in itself.
This little history, resting, as it does, so entirely on my bona fides, I feel bound, at the risk of my being tedious, to add such remarks as I think may induce my readers to share with me the confidence that I have, that my statements are essentially true.
This Post would seem, most unjustly, to have fallen into oblivion, from which I am urged to rescue it. As I am now in my seventy-ninth year, and appear to have outlived all those who might have been able to throw some light upon it, I feel that if ’tis to be done ’twere well ’twere done quickly or the facts may never see the day.
Mr. C. H. Coster in his standard work on the U. S. Local Stamps, published in 1882, while he gives a most complete account of all the numerous others, makes a solitary exception of the post to which we are now giving attention. Of it he says: “It was without doubt the first Penny Post in the United States,” and breaks off abruptly with these words, “but I was unable to get any information about this post.”
In treating of the Post entitled “The United States City Despatch Post,” he cautions his readers not to confound this Post with the “City Despatch Post ” which was established by Mr. Greig on the first of January, 1842.
That the “City Despatch Post” was so soon overlooked, I attribute to its short life and the almost immediate emission of the “United States City Despatch Post,” which was its facsimile in every respect, except the addition of “United States ” to the title and the use of paper of a different color.
My father mentions in his letters that his business address was 43 Broad Street, and Mr. E. D. Bacon was kind enough to hunt up in the British Museum Library the New York City Directory for 1842-3 and extracted from it the following, “Henry T. Windsor, Com. Mer., 43 Broad; h Hoboken.” “Alexander M. Greig, Despatch Post, 46 William; h Brooklyn.”
In my first letter to Mr. E. D. Bacon I mentioned the chief facts, which came first to my recollection and he drew up a paper which appeared in the London Philatelist for January, 1894.
Since then I have carefully re-read my father’s letters, and many little circumstances have come to my mind which did not occur to me at once, after so many years; I also discovered that Mr. Coster was now in New York. I wrote and requested him to make certain enquiries.
In reply, after thanking me for the information I had given him, he says, “I can well remember the trouble I had in getting any information about it, when I was collecting the material for my book, and the additional information which you gave me would have been invaluable. Your father’s old address, 43 Broad Street, is within a few doors of the place from which I am writing, but no traces of the past are now to be found.”
As regards the stamps; considering the short existence of the Post, the half century that has elapsed since, the fact that collections were not dreamed of until many years after, the probability that the letters sent through the Post were of a useful yet of a trivial character, and not likely to be preserved (for the New York of that day would hear no comparison with the New York of today, and the distances from place were so short as to warrant the assumption that communications of any importance were mostly made personally), it is reasonable to suppose that very few of the stamps can now be existing.
So much for the used, and as regards the unused, they being at that time of no intrinsic value whatever are not likely to have been hoarded up.
My father, as proprietor, on his return home brought with him such as were at the office when its doors were closed. Some years after his death these came directly into my hands through the medium of my mother, who said to me at the time, “these are some of the stamps of your dear father’s New York Post which he had when the Government compelled him to discontinue it, considering it to be an infringement of the Government’s rights.”
I believe that no number of these genuine stamps are in existence.
I hope I may succeed rescuing this first Post, which formed the basis of all that have followed up to the present day, from its lengthened obscurity, in elevating it to that highest position to which it cannot fail to be considered as fully entitled.
Should I succeed I shall at least have fulfilled the wishes of those who urged me on.
In conclusion I would recommend any person who may be offered a stamp of this first issue to be thoroughly satisfied that it is an undeniably authenticated one and not to accept it simply because it is entitled “City Despatch Post,” as it may be the verisimilitude of one, yet not the thing, for I believe there were others who for some little time ran “City Despatch Posts” in competition with the “ United States City Despatch Post,” and may have imitated Greig’s Post more closely than even the United States Post did.
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The Three Cent Trime Coin shows with an image of the design of the first adhesive postage stamps by the City Depatch Post in 1842.
