About This Stamp
The 10-cent Canal Boat coil stamp in the Transportation series was issued on April 11, 1987, in Buffalo, New York, origin of the famous Erie Canal.
The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 spawned a method of transportation whose heyday lasted more than 60 years. Canal boats by the hundreds carried freight and passengers on waterways that primarily crisscrossed the Middle Atlantic and Great Lakes states.
Cost and comfort were keys to the canal boat's success. In 1826, $4 a day would cover hiring a boat captain, a mule and mule driver, the mule's feed, and the rental of a 25-ton canal boat.
William H. Bond of Arlington, Virginia, designed the Canal Boat stamp. He also designed the 4.9-cent Buckboard, 8.5-cent Tow Truck, 14-cent Iceboat, and 25-cent Bread Wagon stamps in the Transportation series, and the 20-cent Alaska Statehood commemorative stamp of 1984.
The stamps were engraved through the intaglio process (B Press) by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and issued in coils of 3,000 (initially) and 500.