[2] (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.)

Moreover, none of the ten other cities produced a provisional stamp design so ambitious in its visual content (its homespun artistic realization notwithstanding).

[3] 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 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 Great Seal of the United States.

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.)

"[5] More Bears have since surfaced and their prices have been far outstripped by scarcer philatelic treasures; nevertheless they remain impressively rare, particularly examples of the 20¢ value.