United States Postage Rates By Year

United States Postage Rates By Year

Selected rates and fees for U.S. Postal Rates from 1847-1950 may be found at the top of each of the following pages. Much more information is presented on these pages, including the Presidents, Postmasters and a description and illustration of any new designs the U.S. Post Office issued that year. At the bottom of each page is a list of all new varieties, including any new designs, of U.S. Postage stamps issued that year.

Please note that rates to foreign destinations varied wildly, depending on the postal treaty between the U.S. and any given country. The establishment of the General Postal Union in 1874, which went on to become the Universal Postal Union (the U.P.U.) a few years later, helped to make some sense of the incredible variety of international postal rates that preceded it. There are many excellent references that cover postal rates to foreign destinations in great detail. We list a few below.

Please click on the year for which you would like to know the U.S. domestic postage rates.

1847: The First Year

1851 ˇ 1852 ˇ 1853 ˇ 1854 ˇ 1855 ˇ 1856 ˇ 1857 ˇ 1858 ˇ 1859 ˇ 1860

1861 ˇ 1862 ˇ 1863 ˇ 1864 ˇ 1865 ˇ 1866 ˇ 1867 ˇ 1868 ˇ 1869 ˇ 1870

1871 ˇ 1872 ˇ 1873 ˇ 1874 ˇ 1875 ˇ 1876 ˇ 1877 ˇ 1878 ˇ 1879 ˇ 1880

1881 ˇ 1882 ˇ 1883 ˇ 1884 ˇ 1885 ˇ 1886 ˇ 1887 ˇ 1888 ˇ 1889 ˇ 1890

1891 ˇ 1892 ˇ 1893 ˇ 1894 ˇ 1895 ˇ 1896 ˇ 1897 ˇ 1898 ˇ 1899 ˇ 1900

1901 ˇ 1902 ˇ 1903 ˇ 1904 ˇ 1905 ˇ 1906 ˇ 1907 ˇ 1908 ˇ 1909 ˇ 1910

1911 ˇ 1912 ˇ 1913 ˇ 1914 ˇ 1915 ˇ 1916 ˇ 1917 ˇ 1918 ˇ 1919 ˇ 1920

1921 ˇ 1922 ˇ 1923 ˇ 1924 ˇ 1925 ˇ 1926 ˇ 1927 ˇ 1928 ˇ 1929 ˇ 1930

1931 ˇ 1932 ˇ 1933 ˇ 1934 ˇ 1935 ˇ 1936 ˇ 1937 ˇ 1938 ˇ 1939 ˇ 1940

1941 ˇ 1942 ˇ 1943 ˇ 1944 ˇ 1945 ˇ 1946 ˇ 1947 ˇ 1948 ˇ 1949 ˇ 1950

At the bottom of each page is a listing of all varieties of U.S. postage stamps, including Regular Issues, Commemoratives, Air Mails, Special Deliveries, Registry Stamps, Postage Dues, Parcel Post, Parcel Post Postage Dues, and Shanghai Overprints issued in that year.

Further reading:

U.S. Domestic Postal Rates

U.S. Domestic Rates, U.S. Domestic Postal Rates 1872-1999 by H. W. Beecher and A. S. Wawrukiewicz - This is the definitive reference and is considered to be the bible for U.S. postal historians. Note that it is the second addition, much expanded from the 1994 first edition.

The Forwarding of Mail by the U.S. Post Office Department, 1792-2001 by Anthony S. Wawrukiewicz Š2001 - again, a must have book for the serious cover/postal history collector

The United States 1¢ Franklin 1861-1867, by Don L. Evans - not just about the one cent stamp, there is an incredible amount of information on all of the 1861-1868 Issues and the postal history of the era,

International Postal Rates

United States Letter Rates to Foreign Destinations, 1847 to GPU-UPU - 1989, by Charles J. Starnes - considered the definitive reference on US postal rates to foreign destinations.

History of Letter Post Communications Between the United States and Europe 1845-1875, Second Edition -1975, by George E. Hargest - an invaluable aid in determining postage rates to Europe from the U.S.

The editor would like to thank Steve Pacetti for his invaluable input on the rates for the 1860s decade.