Seebeck and his early stamps
Nicholas F. Seebeck was born February 19, 1857 in Hanover, Germany. He emigrated with his parents to the United States in 1866 at the age of 9. They settled at Crown Point, Indiana where his father worked as a book binder. At approximately age 15 he moved to New York City and in 1872 he opened a job-printing and stationery store at 3 Vesey Street in Manhattan. According to his business card he also offered foreign postage stamps and stamp albums. By the age of 19, he published his first stamp catalog: Descriptive Price Catalogue of All Known Postage Stamps of the United States and Foreign Countries.
Seebeck was described as “a young man with the rapacity to earn money”. He regularly pursued new ways to acquire inventory for his stamp business using tactics such as, sending cards to U.S. postmasters offering to purchase used stamps from them. Particularly the bundled newspaper stamps which were cancelled on a postal memorandum and retained by the post office. These were in high demand from collectors during those times.
The Early Travels
In 1878 or 1879 Seebeck traveled to the Dominican Republic and shorlty after his return printed the 1879 stamps of the Dominican Republic and also the Colombia state of Bolivar, the later which he continued to print through 1881. Evidence suggests that he was also responsible for printing the 1881 postal cards and envelopes of the Dominican Republic.
The U.S. Stamp and Ticket Agreements
In 1880 Seebeck moved his business to 97 Wall Street. From this location he secured a number of agreements to produce stamps and tickets. These included Hussey’s Post of New York City, Postal Telegraph Company, and ticket printing for the New York Elevated Railroad, New York and Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Elevated Railroad Co. and other companies. In 1885 he transferred these assets to the Hamilton Banknote Printing and Engraving Company.
Seebeck produced the three 1880 denomination of Hussey Post perf. 12 stamps, Scott #s 87L73 – 87L75, and the two denominations of the 1882 perf. 16 issue, Scott #s 87L76 and 87L77.
The imprint at the bottom of these stamps reads “N. F. Seebeck, 97 Wall St. N.Y.”.
Postal Telegraph Company
In 1885 Seebeck produced four numeral stamps for the Postal Telegraph Company, New York. Scott #s 15T1 – 15T4. These stamps were engraved and printed by the Hamilton Bank Note Printing and Engraving Company.
The Seebeck Plan
As a producer, dealer and collector of stamps, Seebeck must have realized early on a need to find more creative ways to fulfill the insatiable demands of the collecting community. The plan he devised would not only make beautiful high quality stamps available at a low price to collectors, it would insure a ongoing supply of both unused and used cancelled stamps. Used stamps during that time were often considered more desirable stamps. Along with the growth in stamp collecting came the growth in forgeries. Many believed that a used cancelled stamp validated its genuineness.
Seebeck was clearly an intelligent businessman whose ideas were brilliant. The records also show that he was an honorable man who always took great care in fulfilling his contractual obligations and was respectful of his philatelic family. As he began to acquire contracts for the production of stamps, common elements of his plan began to come to light.
The Process
The stamps of smaller, less developed countries were hard to come by for collectors. Seebeck focused on these countries which included;
Dominican Republic, Colombia, Colombia State of Bolivar, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala and Costa Rico, the later which he failed to secure any contract with.
Seebeck’s contracts offered to produce for and deliver to each country for free:
- A series of postage stamps, any postal stationary and other type stamps needed, each year, for 10 years, with the condition that all unsold remainders for the year would be returned to him.
- That he would retain the the printing plates and be allowed to use them for reprints after the preceding years stamps were demonetized and returned by the country.
- Stipulated that the country could not sell the stamps below face value.
- That in some cases the country would supply him with cancelling devices to produce used stamps
These agreements appeared to be a win win situation for all. They allowed these smaller, less developed countries to obtain high quality stamps and stationary for free and insured an ample supply for Seebeck and the philatelic community.
To be continued
In Part II I’ll take a look at each country and their stamps.
