Established by John A. Floyd early in 1860. operated by him until June 20, 1861, then continued by Charles W. Mappa.
Mappa continued to use Floyd's blue stamp but before May, 1862, Mappa in turn sold the post to new proprietors, Kimball & Waterman. The latest date of a Floyd stamp is a tied green copy sent Nov. 2, 1862
3 stamps were officially issued in blue, brown and green and originals are rare.
The postmarks found on original stamps.
Reprints
These are extremely troublesome
Because George Hussey of New York quickly got possession of the original plates and printed them in five colors as early as March 4, 1863, a scant four months after the last use of the Floyd stamps.
Suddenly there were black Floyds, and the "original" colors of blue, brown and green,
and even pink Floyds.
Hussey had his printer, Thomas Woods, print Floyds at least twice more, on Oct. 18, 1864 and Feb. 16, I865. Th were printed in sheets of 25 (5X5)
NOTE that aside from the paper being noticeably thinner there is no way to tell them apart from an image.
BEWARE, That means that any "genuine" showing up on eBay and similar sites are probably reprints.
3 Plated reprints
Forgeries
Forgery A
There is a shaded ear with a dark shape for the ear well.
The arms of the "Y" in "FLOYD'S" are thinner.
There are 3 lines under the right eye
The "S" in "POST" is bottom heavy.
There is a "B" shaped ornament with two lines over it outside the banner after "POST".
The center arm of the "E" in "PENNY" is centered. The original is not.
The "S" in "POST" does not extend under the arm of the "T".
The "T" has shorter arms than the original.
Forgert B
A sad Floyd
There are six more lines of background on the right than on the left.
The outer border consists of double lines with evenly spaced diagonal hatches.
The apostrophe looks like a boomerang.
The lettering of "PENNY POST" is short and very bold.
The hair is fuller and wavier.
The usual loose loop of hair on the right has become a full curl that does not stick out.
The "O" in 'FLOYD'S" is very round and the dark interior is a round dot.
The "Y" in "FLOYD'S" is very balanced with a short trunk.
The loops of the "S" in "FLOYD'S" touch the diagonal.
Forgery C Taylor
An ornament appears after "POST".
The hair and face are distinctly different.
Around the oval there are diagonal lines instead of the background plaid.
There is no ear visible.
The background is distinctly different and clear.
The "O" in "FLOYD'S" is very heavy on top
There are larger distinct white boxes in all four corners.
Forgery C1
The bowtie disappears in dark ink.
The background lines in the oval have ink in between them.
There is a dark dot on the right side of the cross of the "T" in "POST.".
The ornament after "POST" is dark at the bottom.
There is ink in the box at the SE comer.
The lines at the tip of the nose are inked together.
The eyes are totally darkened out.
The detail of the hair is lost and is mostly dark.
Forgery D Litho from Moens?
A distinctive amount of ear is visible.
The "Y" in "PENNY" has only a small opening between the arms.
The white portion of the box in the lower right is not a square.
The hair and face are very distinctive with a sharp jaw line.
The suit is drawn with fine lines.
There are white spaces at the left and right between the outside of the oval and the outer border.
Forgery D1
| The descriptive characteristics of Forgery D are repeated. |
There is a large flaw in the right border near the top.
Forgery F
There are three lines under the right eye.
The "F" in "FLOYD'S" has an extremely short middle arm.
The facial appearance and hair are different.
The "E" in "PENNY" has a very short middle arm.
Forgery H & I
The above are facsimiles as I have no originals
Forgery H
The apostrophe is a small dot.
The crossbars of the "T" in "POST" are very short.
The "S" in "POST" is a thin hook at the top end.
The top and bottom arms of the "E" in "PENNY" are shorter than the middle arm.
The lines of shading in the bowtie are only on the top half and are missing on the bottom half.
The lines of shading alongside the nose are missing.
Forgery I
There are dots around the eyes, face and chin.
This man's face bears no resemblance to any of the others and there is a beard.
There are no corner boxes.
Forgery J
Wild eyed
The face is different with a wider nose and there are dots around both eyes.
There is no visible ear.
There are two rows of dots extending down from the nose.
The background lines appear as a pyramid at each side of the face.
There are curly lines that look like a goatee.
The double oval at the sides touch the borders on the left and right.
Forgery K
There is no apostrophe in "FLOYDS"
The "O" in "POST" is very wide.
The "S" in "POST" is falling over.
The face is narrower than the original with a different hair appearance.
The ear is just a dark shape.
The "Y" in "PENNY" has a very long trunk and very short arms.
The top of the "S" in "FLOYD' S" is very narrow and ends in a dot.
Unknown Forgery
Very crude or worn out reprint die
Wing frame too large and wrong color
Plane position very wrong
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