About This Stamp
A 13.2-cent stamp featuring an 1870s coal car was issued July 19, 1988, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The dedication ceremony was held at the Mellon Science Center of Duquesne University.
Richard Schlecht based the stamp's design on a photograph of an actual coal car manufactured in 1873 by the York, Pennsylvania, firm of Billmyer and Small.
Though simple in function and appearance, the humble coal car had a great impact on American industry. Until the mid-19th century, mules or the miners themselves usually hauled coal to the surface, a slow and dangerous process. Fortunately, the development of safe and practical locomotives, themselves dependent on coal for power, proved a boon to mining.
Eventually, cars, pulled by an ingenious variation of the railroad carried uncountable tons of coal to the surface. It was one of fate's more fortunate strokes that the locomotive appeared, powering the coal industry just in time for coal to fire the entire Industrial Age.
The stamps were engraved through the intaglio process (B Press) by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and issued in coils of 500 and 3,000 (pre-canceled only).