About This Stamp
The 10.9-cent Hansom Cab was issued on March 26, 1982, at CHATTAPEX, the Chattanooga (Tennessee) Stamp Club’s 50th anniversary show. The stamp illustrates a Hansom cab, patented by English architect Joseph Hansom in 1834. The Hansom cab now on display in the Smithsonian Institution was manufactured by D.P. Nichols Company of New York, Chicago, and Boston.
Intended to pay the basic third-class presort rate begun five months earlier, on November 1, 1981, the words “bulk rate” are included in the design. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing printed over 91 million stamps on the Cottrell press with plate numbers at intervals of 24 stamps. The overall tagged version without precancel bars was issued for collectors in coils of 500 using only plate numbers 1 and 2. The untagged version with pre-cancel bars for commercial use appeared in coils of 500 and 3,000. It is found with plate numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4. Plate numbers 3 and 4 are much scarcer than plate numbers 1 and 2. Like the other stamps with pre-cancel bars printed on the Cottrell press, there are gaps between the bars at intervals of 12 stamps.
David K. Stone of Port Washington, New York, designed the stamp. Clarence Holbert of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing modeled the stamp, and Edward P. Archer, also of the Bureau, engraved the vignette. Thomas J. Bakos engraved the lettering.