Special delivery (postal service)

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Special delivery denotes a class of postal mail in which, for an additional charge beyond postage, an item is individually delivered to the recipient immediately upon receipt by the destination Post Office.

By 1869, Joseph Story Fay, associated with the Smithsonian Institution, working at their Woods Hole, Mass. facility, wrote to his congressman and requested that the post office establish a special mail service for prompt delivery of letters for an additional fee. This initial letter was printed in the Congressional Record and is the first recorded attempt to initiate such a service. About 1883, the post office thought about such a service; if one believes a Watertown, New York Congressman, he claims to be the father of the system. Postmaster General Wanamaker also claims the honor, but the real honor goes to the Universal Postal Union, which at its March 1885 meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, actually established such a special service for an additional fee. The United States immediately jumped on the idea and began preparing a die and printing stamps, and by August, a full page poster was printed listing the 555 Special Delivery post offices which would receive and deliver this mail. By the first of September, most of those offices had also been supplied with special delivery stamps, in quantities of 10 to thousands depending on the estimated usages. On October 1, 1885, all was in readiness.

The first issue is marked "AT A SPECIAL DELIVERY OFFICE" since only 555 first class offices (of the 4000 or so in being at that time) could actually deliver these special letters. How were they special -- they did NOT receive special treatment along the route from the mailing but once they reached the applicable post office in the City, they were sent out by a specially appointed messenger, generally boys 13 to 16 years old, whose sole salary was 8c of the face of 10c of each letter they delivered. There were limitations as well. Mail to post office boxes, general delivery or where forwarding instructions were left would not be paid for at the 8c rate; the government made the entire 10c fee. And, the messenger's compensation was capped at $30 per month. This payment arrangement went on until June 30, 1945 when special delivery messengers were made paid employees of the government and some abuses were found in that fee arrangement. The 8c messenger compensation did not increase until decades later as the special delivery fee was raised above 10c, but it was not until after that period that the fee was raised according to weight; one could send a 70 pound tire for the same 10c special delivery fee...

The stamps were ready on the first day of the service, October 1, 1885, and some were actually used on September 29 and 30th, but they had no purpose until 6 a.m. on October 1 when the service began. Three of the known and available first day covers, now numbering seven, are in the collection and a couple of illustrated, including early use covers. The early stamp sale was allowed.

In addition to the special delivery stamp (this had to be placed on the envelope and regular stamps could not be used until July 1, 1907 to pay for this service), (the earliest use of regular stamps is July 4, 1907, by the way) a first class stamp had to be added. No letter could be sent postage due for the first class rate and obtain special delivery service. This was changed on January 13, 1889 when postage due special delivery letters could be delivered and postage due collected from the addressee.

There was no mail allowed to be sent to any foreign country special delivery since none had a treaty arrangement with this country until Canada commencing on January 1, 1923. Great Britain did have a special delivery system in the early 1890s and in fact had treaties with 13 countries but not the United States, so any special delivery mail which is directed abroad would not receive service. The United States, however, did allow service where its special delivery stamps were taken abroad and used on incoming mail; in fact, the earliest one known is from the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1886 and from Germany in 1887, as long as the foreign post office did not cancel the US stamp, service was given.

In the 19th century, only Canada formally issued special delivery stamps, on June 28, 1898, but other countries soon followed, including US possessions, so there was but limited service around the world until 1904 when several countries began to issue stamps. Great Britain had a well defined service but never issued stamps; in fact, only five British related countries ever put out special delivery stamps: Bahamas, Canada, Egypt, Mauritius, New Zealand and British Guiana (modern).

Another key date for special delivery collectors is October 1, 1886, exactly one year after the establishment of the service, since on that date special delivery service was extended to all 4000 first class post office. A first day cover of that date is known - a very rare cover is one addressed to a non-special delivery office prior to October 1, 1886; this is a great postal history item and one well worth searching for.

The United States issued eleven collector recognized stamps during its first 37 years. Only 12 additional stamps were issued during the final 75 years of this service. During the life of the Special Delivery service there were nine basic designs and 5 designs for a combination of services which included airmail.

Special delivery mail was squeezed out by Express Mail on June 7, 1997, significantly ending on the last day of the Pacific 1997 International Stamp Show in San Francisco, California.

Info courtesy of R.L. Markovits (http://www.usspecialdelivery.com)