The 4th section provides that postage stamps shall be defaced as the Postmaster General may direct, and the penalty for omitting so to do.
The 10th section provides for the appointment of carriers, the rate to be one or two cents prepaid, the carriers to be paid out of the receipts from this postage.
The 11th section authorizes the coining of the three cent coin, probably to facilitate the payment of these rates.
The other matters mentioned in the foregoing Act are of little interest here, but the following circular contains some matters of importance:
POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, _June 10th, 1851_.
"To facilitate the payment of postages upon letters and packages, postage stamps of the following denominations are provided and furnished by the postmaster General, pursuant to the third section of the "Act to reduce and modify the rates of Postage in the United States," and for other purposes approved March 3rd, 1851.
Viz: No. 1. Printed in black, representing the head of Washington, of the denomination of twelve cents. No. 2. Printed in red, representing the head of Washington, in profile, of the denomination of three cents. No. 3. Printed in blue, representing the head of Franklin, in profile, of the denomination of one cent.
These stamps will be furnished to one or more of the principal postmasters in each county, who will be required to supply the other postmasters in their vicinities, upon being paid for the amount furnished."
The remaining provisions relate to the mode of distribution, accounting, cancelling, etc., and are of no particular interest. The circular is signed "Nathan D. Hall, Postmaster General."
A similar circular dated April 3rd, 1852, is almost an exact repetition of the foregoing. The stamps issued may be described more fully thus:
ONE CENT. Bust of Benjamin Franklin, first Postmaster General, in profile, facing to the right, in an oval disk 17 by 20½ mm., with a ground of very fine horizontal colored lines, slightly waved, bordered by a colorless line between two fine colored lines. The colorless line is ornamented by a line of fine dots. Above is a label, bordered at the top by a similarly ornamented colorless line, between two fine colored lines, terminated at the ends by the corner ornaments of the stamp, with a ground of fine colored lines following the lines of the oval, and inscribed in outline capitals "_U. S. Postage_." Below the oval is a similar label, the ends terminated by a similar border, with a ground of fine colored lines, inscribed "_One Cent_" in outline capitals. This label is shaded by a number of vertical lines. Scroll and foliated corner ornaments extending down the sides. There is no outside line finishing the frame. The stamps are very near each other on the sheet.