430 5 Buff 11 3 139 × 83 Gummed. 431 " Or. 11 3 " Ungummed.
433 5 Buff 11 3 139 × 83 Gummed. 434 " Or. 11 3 " Ungummed. 434a " Buff 12 5 160 × 90 "
436 5 Buff 11 3 139 × 83 Gummed. 437 " Or. 11 3 " Ungummed. 438 " Buff 12 5 160 × 90 Gummed.
440 5 Buff 11 3 139 × 83 Gummed. 441 " Or. 11 3 " Ungummed.
443 5 Amber 11 3 139 × 83 Gummed. 444 " Or. 11 3 " Ungummed.
446 5 Amber 11 3 139 × 83 Gummed. 447 " " 12 5 160 × 90 Ungummed.
448 5 Buff 11 3 139 × 83 Gummed. 449 " Amber 11 3 " " 450 " Or. 11 3 " Ungummed.
No. Class. Paper. Dimensions. Laid. Remarks.
No. Class. Paper. Dimensions. Laid. Remarks.
473 3 L. M. 100 × 200 V 474 " " 133 × 200 --
475 3 L. M. 133 × 200 H 476 " " 115 × 375 H Stamp 137 mm. from top.
477 4 L. M. 133 × 200 H 478 " " " V 479 " " " Wove
491 5 L. M. 100 × 200 V 492 " Buff " V 493 " " 150 × 212 V 494 " " " H
THREE CENTS, ROSE; THREE CENTS, BROWN; SIX CENTS, ROSE AND SIX CENTS, PURPLE.
In the Postmaster-General's report for 1864 it is stated that "during the last session of Congress a bill was passed for the relief of the contractor for furnishing the department with stamped envelopes and newspaper wrappers, under the provisions of which the existing contract expired on Sept. 11, 1864."
With the renewal of the former contract Nesbitt changed the dies of the two, three and six cents. The first we have already exhaustively treated. It is, of course, the two cents, black, "U. S. POST". All these dies remained in use until June 30th, 1870.
As a matter of history it may be noted here that the three cents printed in brown, likewise the six cents rose, both on official size, were issued in July, 1865. The dies have a portrait of Washington facing to the left in a plain oval. It is enclosed in a frame of colorless lines. Inscription above "UNITED STATES"; below, "THREE CENTS" or "SIX CENTS", in block capitals. Large numerals of value at each side.
None of the Nesbitt die varieties have given the writer so many anxious hours and have required such prolonged study as the three cents of 1864. Indeed, the final solution of the problem of classification of the various dies was only arrived at after more than two years continuous research. Like the famous balancing of the egg of Columbus, the problem, when solved, is extremely simple. Looking backward on the long series of failures, it seems strange that the chief characteristics have so long escaped the attention of cataloguers. The fact, however, is patent. Even as thorough and painstaking a student as the late Gilbert Harrison who, in 1895, chronicled, as he thought, all of the existing die varieties of the three cents has failed to observe the most important differences. Indeed, in the entire philatelic literature dealing with the Nesbitt dies of 1864 there is but one allusion to the feature which constitutes the surest means for the identification of the die varieties, and this is only a single sentence contained in the Historical Notes of Messrs. Tiffany, Bogert and Rechert. It reads:--