Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 October 1893 — Obsolete. [ARTICLE]

Obsolete.

Only two issues of stamps were ever declared obsolete by the United States Government. They were the issues of 1847 and 1861. When the civil war came the Postal Department had no means of getting at the postmasters in the seceded Statesand making them return the large stock of stamps which they had on hand. The only way to prevent their use wrs to put out another issue and declare all the old stamps valueless. This was done in 1861.