1895 10c Special Delivery Specimen, Blue

Here’s your chance to get something entirely different for your U.S. collection – a Special Delivery Specimen stamp.  Specimen stamps have an interesting history – postal history you’ll want to have in your album.  And this stamp is in nice mint condition after surviving over 130 years!  Add it to your collection today while it's still available and so affordable. 

The concept of Specimen stamps was born at the 1878 Paris Congress of the Universal Postal Union (UPU).  It was decided by the member countries that their postal administrations would each provide three examples of every newly issued postage stamp to all other members.  The purpose was to provide a reference of each country’s valid postage issues.  It was hoped this would help prevent forgeries.  

As of 2018, the rule was one set of each new issue to each member country.  Also 15 sets to the International Bureau, headquarters of the UPU, located in Berne, Switzerland.  That makes a total of 235 sets.

Most U.S. Specimen stamps of 1851-1904 are overprinted with the word “Specimen”.  Special Delivery stamps issued from 1888 are overprinted with a purple hand stamp. 

Special Delivery stamps were pre-payments added to the regular “lawful postage” for an extra service – immediate delivery of a letter within one mile of any special delivery post office.  These special post offices were those with free routine delivery service or in larger communities with 4,000 or more people. 

First available in 1885, the Special Delivery service was extremely popular.  At first, the service was available from 7 a.m. to midnight.  The following year, the hours changed from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.  The service was so successful that in 1886, every U.S. post office began to offer Special Delivery.