United States postal notes

Postal notes were the specialized money order successors to the United States Department of the Treasury's postage and fractional currency.

They were created so Americans could safely and inexpensively (for a three cent fee) send sums of money under $5 to distant places.

[2] Government officials, wary of the continuing problem of postal theft, initially mandated that the notes could be cashable only in the city named by the purchaser.

To comply with the new law, "Any Money Order Office" was rubber-stamped or hand written in place of a specific paying city on the Type II forms.

To comply with the law, Homer Lee's engravers added the words "ANY MONEY ORDER OFFICE" in a level line into the second design's printing plates.

Due to the short period of time between the passage of the new law and the start of the second production contract (which Homer Lee did not receive), few post offices ordered and issued Type III Postal Notes.

Their design, unchanged during the length of their contract, is catalogued as Type V. Between 1883 and 1894, some 70.8 million Postal Notes were issued, used as intended, then destroyed.