This catalogue of United States postage stamps, stamped envelopes, specimen stamps, and proofs is published with the view of acquainting philatelists with what the Museum desires the Government collection of United States stamps to represent when completed.

Excerpt from Smithsonian Institution, United States National Museum, Bulletin 105: Catalogue of the Postage Stamps and Stamped Envelopes of the United States and Possessions, Issued Prior to January 1, 1919 The catalogue is not intended as a philatelic primer, so that no description of the designs of the stamps is given. Philatelists are generally very well acquainted with all the various designs, but a short description is given of the distinguishing features of the various varieties of type noted. No list is given of the numerous coil stamps issued by various vending and mailing machine companies. They are merely private perforation varieties and have no place in the Government collection. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.