St. Louis Bears
| St. Louis Bears | |
|---|---|
St. Louis Bears 5¢, 10¢ and 20¢ denominations
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| Country of production | United States of America |
| Location of production | St. Louis, Missouri |
| Date of production | 1845-46 |
| Nature of rarity | A small quantity exist |
| Face value | 5¢, 10¢ and 20¢ |
| Estimated value | $8,000, $8,000 and $50,000 |
The St. Louis Bears are a set of Provisional stamps issued by the St. Louis Post office in 1845-46 to facilitate prepayment of postal fees at a time when the United States Post Office had not yet issued postage stamps for national use. St. Louis, whose postmaster, John M. Wimer, instigated the production, was one of eleven cities to produce such stamps. Bears were offered in three denominations: 5¢, 10¢ and 20¢; the earliest known postmark date on a stamp of the issue is November 13, 1845.
The use of provisional stamps became practical after an act of Congress on March 3, 1845 standardized postal fees throughout the nation at 5¢ for a normal-weight letter transported up to 300 miles and 10¢ for a letter transported between 300 and 3000 miles. (Before standardization, the many different postal rates in different jurisdictions had made fees too unpredictable to prepay all letters with stamps as a matter of course, with the result that recipients of letters--rather than senders--generally paid the postage on them.) St. Louis was one of eleven U. S. cities that issued these so-called Postmasters' Provisionals, and--owing to its distance from Atlantic population centers--the only one to offer a provisional denomination larger than 10¢. Moreover, none of the ten other cities produced a provisional stamp design so ambitious in its visual content (its homespun artistic realization notwithstanding). Some provisionals were merely handstamps; others offered engraved letters and numerals and/or reproduced signatures; while two presented portraits of George Washington, one of them--the New York Postmaster's Provisional--engraved with considerable skill by a firm specializing in bank notes. The use of provisionals ceased in the U. S. after national postage stamps became available on July 1, 1847.
The following notice appeared in the Missouri Republican on November 5, 1845:
The stamps owe the name "bears" to the image that appears upon them: a drawing of the Great Seal of Missouri, on which two standing bears hold a heraldic disc rimmed with the slogan "Unite[d] we stand[,] divide[d] we fall." The drawing is meant to suggest that the bracketed final "d"s are covered by the bears' paws, but fails in this aim because artist miscalculated the letter-spacing. A third bear is discernible within the disc (in the bottom-left quadrant), which also contains a crescent moon and a sketch of the US Coat of arms. A ribbon beneath the bears' feet contains the State of Missouri’s motto: Salus populi suprema lex esto (Let the well-being of the people be the highest law.)
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