by C. C. Fisher
Research has been undertaken into the question of which manufacturers supplied the Post Office Department with precanceling devices. After many disappointments a file was found in the office of the Postmaster General which gave clues leading to a solution of the problem.
The first government contract for the supply of rubber handstamps specifically for precanceling stamps was dated June 15, 1915, and was with H. Baumgarten Company of Washington, D. C. The contract was for the twelve months of the fiscal year 1916. (A government fiscal years runs from July 1 through June 30 and is numbered for the calendar year containing the January-June dates.)
J. Baumgarten of Washingaon, D. C., was the contractor for FY 1917. E. (for Emmanuel, the founder of the firm) Baumgarten was the successful bidder for fiscal years 1918 through 1921. He was succeeded by J. Baumgarten & Sons, Inc., for one year, followed by J. Baumgarten & Sons Co., Inc., for fiscal years 1923 and 1924.
Henry Moss & Co., Brooklyn, N. Y., received the contract for rubber precanceling handstamps in June 1924 for the next two fiscal years. Then the business was brought back to Washington by the Baumgarten Company of Washington, who appeared as successful bidders for the fiscal years 1927, 1928, 1929 and 1930. No contract was found for FY 1931, but other information indicates that Baumgarten continued as contractor. Cooper Stamp Works, New York, N. Y., received the contract for FY 1932, which was the last contract for rubber precanceling devices until 1959.
Chambers, of Lodge, Va., developed the metal handstamps and was the successful bidder beginning in July 1932 and continuing through June of 1958. It is understood that there were change’s in the corporate set-up of the company, with resulting changes of name, but all the handelectros were manufactured in the same plant.
Baumgarten, now known only as Baumgarten Company, was sold to Edgar R. Baturin, Melvin M. Gusdorf, and Melvin M. Gusdorf, Jr., during this period. The new owners (not related in any way to the founders) developed a neoprene rubber handstamp which was impervious to the oil-based inks which had ruined other types of rubber devices and caused the Department to switch to metal precanceling handstamps. Because of this devel opment, with attendant lower prices, they became the official contractors for FY’s 1959 and 1960.
A lower bid was submitted by Hanley Postal Supply, Erie, Pa., in the early summer of 1960; this firm is the current contractor.
And now, a few words about the various Baumgarten contractors. There must have been several brothers and at least one of more distant relationship. All of them operated in Washington except one, who did his bidding from Baltimore, Md., but delivered his product from Washington. It is said that at one time there were two different plants, both in Washington, and both specializing in rubber stamps.
In the above recital of handstamp contractors there was no mention of the period from July 1, 1913, when the Post Office Department first began to issue precanceling devices to postmasters, to July 1, 1915. Prior to 1915 rubber precanceling handstamps were not listed as items of issue in department supply catalogs. Items 500, 501 and 502 were various types of rubber handstamps, including one on which the price was per square inch, as ordered. This item could have been “for precanceling postage stamps” but was not so specifically designated. In 1915 Item 503 was added to the list of available supplies, and this item was specifically designated “For Precanceling.” Actually the item number, or the lack of it, makes Little difference historically because the contractor during this period was: Baumgarten!
Rubber precanceling handstamps were first designated as Item 503. In 1932 (when the change was made to hand electrotypes) the designation was changed to Item 762, but when the change was made back to rubber handstamps in the middle of 1958 no change was made in the item number.
Item 780 is an electrotype plate, properly backed and mounted, issued to postmasters for precanceling 2500 sheets (or more) of stamps by letterpress printing. It first appeared in the bids for 1918, but no award was made that year, or in 1919 or 1920. First successful bidder on this item was Franklin Bauer Company, New York, N. Y., who provided electros to the department for the fiscal years’ 1922, 1923 and 1924. No record of award was found for FY 1925, but United Electrotype Company, Nashville, Tenn., held the contract for fiscal years 1926 through 1929, when they were underbid by Potomac Electrotype Co., Inc., of Washington, D. C., who has continued to date.
No contract awards for electrotype plates we’re made prior to the spring of 1921. Under the system employed by the Post Office Department when an award is not made the current contractor continues to perform. It became necessary to discover who this earliest contractor was, in order to complete the record.
Turned out to be the Government Printing Office, which set the type for and produced the first electro type precanceling plates. Although no formal reference to this arrangement remains in department files the information was confirmed by some of the older retired employees of the Government Printing Office.
For the one missing year (FY 1925) the contractor could have been either Franklin Bauer Company or United Electrotype Company. Present inconclusive information seems to favor Bauer.
DLEs were the work of Potomac Electrotype Co. Specifications at that time called for a “double line border,” but both the electro manufacturer and the rubber handstamp manufacturer took this to mean thin double lines above the city and below the state names.