Official mail is mail

Mail

Mail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...

 sent from, or by an authorised department of government, governmental agency or international organization and normally has some indication that it is official; a certifying cachet

Cachet

In philately, a cachet is a printed or stamped design or inscription, other than a cancellation or pre-printed postage, on an envelope, postcard, or postal card to commemorate a postal or philatelic event. There are official and private cachets. They commemorate everything from the first flight...

, return address

Return address

In postal mail, a return address is an explicit inclusion of the address of the person sending the message. It provides the recipient with a means to determine how to respond to the sender of the message if needed....

 or other means of identity, indicating its user. In some countries postage stamp

Postage stamp

A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...

s have been issued specifically for official mail.

Official stamps were intended for the same purpose as regular postage stamps except that they were unavailable for purchase at post offices. While most stamps are denominated some have no value imprint

Non-denominated postage

Non-denominated postage is postage intended to meet a certain postage rate that retains full validity for that intended postage rate even after the rate is increased. It does not show a monetary value, or denomination, on the face. In many English speaking countries, it is called non-value...

.

History

Some of the earliest official mail were the messages sent by kings, emperors and other rulers. Cursus publicus

Cursus publicus

The cursus publicus was the state-run courier and transportation service of the Roman Empire, later inherited by the Byzantine Empire. It was created by Emperor Augustus to transport messages, officials, and tax revenues from one province to another...

 was an official Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 mail courier (and transportation) system created by Emperor Augustus

Augustus

Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...

. Much later, one of the functions of the Thurn and Taxis postal system was to carry the mail of Emperor Maximilan I

Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

Maximilian I , the son of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor and Eleanor of Portugal, was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1493 until his death, though he was never in fact crowned by the Pope, the journey to Rome always being too risky...

.

Official mail stamps are related to the end of franking privilege that granted certain elected officials of a government the privilege to send mail for free. The person usually signed their name on the mail but it was a highly abused system. In the UK the rules were changed requiring the sender to indicate the date and place of mailing in addition to their signature, but this too was abused and this led, in part, to the introduction of postage stamps.

Most governments use envelopes with an indicia indicating its official status; the United Kingdom's official mail most often shows, O.H.M.S. or On His/Her Majesty's Service, the United States uses the silhouette of an eagle, Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

 shows a hand holding a cleft stick with a letter is wedged into it, while Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

 uses a harp.

After the civil war

Civil war

A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....

, the United States Post Office Department

United States Post Office Department

The Post Office Department was the name of the United States Postal Service when it was a Cabinet department. It was headed by the Postmaster General....

 had a large deficit and according to the Postmaster General

United States Postmaster General

The United States Postmaster General is the Chief Executive Officer of the United States Postal Service. The office, in one form or another, is older than both the United States Constitution and the United States Declaration of Independence...

's 1869 report 31,933 had the franking privilege at an estimated cost of $5 million, so in 1872 the Republican party

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 included a proposal to eliminate the free frank as part of their election platform. Between 1873 and 1891 there was no free franking in the USA because special official mail stamps had been issued, but by 1891 free franking had been restored.

In Great Britain

The first official mail postage stamp, known as the VR official

VR official

The VR official was one of three postage stamps introduced by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in May 1840 for the pre-payment of postage. While the Penny Black and the Two Pence Blue were for use by the general public, as were the Mulready envelopes and letter sheets, the VR...

, was issued by the United Kingdom

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

 at the same time as the Penny Black

Penny Black

The Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system. It was issued in Britain on 1 May 1840, for official use from 6 May of that year....

 and Two pence blue

Two pence blue

The Two Penny Blue was the world’s second official postage stamp, issued after the Penny Black.It was issued in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and was first sold to the public at the London Inland revenue office in the afternoon of May 8th 1840. Except for its denomination of the...

. The VR Official utilised the same design as the Penny Black except that the stars in the top corners were removed and replaced by the letters V and R that gives the stamp its common name. On May 7, 1840, W.L. Maberly, Secretary to the British post office

Royal Mail

Royal Mail is the government-owned postal service in the United Kingdom. Royal Mail Holdings plc owns Royal Mail Group Limited, which in turn operates the brands Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide...

, sent a notice to all postmasters to which was affixed a pair of VR specimens as well as a pair of two penny blues. The notice charged the postmasters to note the letters in the upper corners of the stamp that was to be: applied to the correspondence of Public Departments, and other Persons formerly enjoying the privilege of Official Franking.

In the United States

Legislation passed by the United States Congress on March 3, 1873 stated that: "the Postmaster General shall cause to be prepared a special stamp or stamped envelope, to be used only for official mail matter for each of the executive departments", to this end, the official stamps were issued on July 1, 1873 for the Executive Branch and the departments of Agriculture, the Interior, Justice, Navy, Post Office, Treasury and War following the ending of the franking privilege though the stamps were only in use for seven years mainly due to the need for departmental postage accountability. The Post Office also printed official stamped envelopes

Postal stationery

A piece of postal stationery is a stationery item, such as a stamped envelope, letter sheet, postal card, lettercard, aerogram or wrapper, with an imprinted stamp or inscription indicating that a specific rate of postage or related service has been prepaid...

 for their own use.

In March 1877 the stamps became unnecessary, because a congressional act permitted government departments to provide their own envelopes endorsed "Official Business". Private use of the envelopes had a fine of $300. Тhe official stamps were officially discontinued June 30, 1879, but they were in use until they were exhausted. The stamps and envelopes were finally abolished on July 5, 1884, however, for a four-year period between 1910–1914 official stamps were used for the postal savings program.

The first US stamps to have the words "Official Mail" printed on them were issued on January 12, 1983 when the departmental postage accountability again became a concern. The Great Seal of the United States

Great Seal of the United States

The Great Seal of the United States is used to authenticate certain documents issued by the United States federal government. The phrase is used both for the physical seal itself , and more generally for the design impressed upon it...

 became the central design on these 20¢ stamps and envelopes. A 32¢ stamp and envelope superseded the 20¢ issue in 1995.

Elsewhere

Several countries, such as, Australia, New South Wales, New Zealand and Niue, have issued official stamps that can often be identified because they bear the words like, "official," "service," "dienstmark," or the initials "O.S." (Official service) or OHMS (On Her/His Majesty's Service) in the design, as an overprint

Overprint

An overprint is an additional layer of text or graphics added to the face of a postage stamp or banknote after it has been printed. Post offices most often use overprints for internal administrative purposes such as accounting but they are also employed in public mail...

, or a perfin

Perfin

In philately, a perfin is a stamp that has had initials or a name perforated across it to discourage theft. The name is a contraction of perforated initials or perforated insignia...

. Even Tibet had official postage stamps around 1950.

External links

• Federal agencies make use of Official mail Refresher Course: Linns.com
• Post Office. Frauds and abuses in relation to franking 18th century British Parliamentary Papers
• United States Official postage stamp images 1873–1884
• United States Official Stamps 1897-1884
• U.S. Official Mail stamps: officially gone? Linns.com
• USPS Official mail regulations
• VR One Penny stamp British Postal Museum & Archive