In 1860, the United States was on the threshold of major changes. A great Civil War loomed on the horizon, threatening to split the country apart, and in Washington, the Post Office Department faced the fact that a new contract would have to be signed for the production of a set of stamps of new designs to replace the current issue. The current issue 30 cent and 90 cent denominations had been in use for less than a year. Bids were sought from printing companies to manufacture new stamps. The National Bank Note Company submitted a set of designs to the Post Office Department for approval and received the contract.

Their stamps, properly called essays and trial colors, are better known as "August Issues" or Premiere Gravures": (first designs). The finished "second" designs for the 30 cent and 90 cent denominations, with color variations from the 30 cent and 90 cent designs of the 1857-60 Issues, were approved by the Postmaster General, and printing began.

The 30 cent and 90 cent stamps were designed by James MacDonough. Both denominations were engraved by Joseph E. Pease (portrait) and William D. Nichols (frame). Horizontal plates of 200 subjects were printed and cut into panes of 100. All 30 cent stamps were printed from a single plate engraved as Plate #7. All 90 cent stamps were printed from a single plate #18. Records estimate that 3,300,000 copies of he 30 cent denomination and 388,700 copies of the 90 cent denomination were printed and delivered to Post Offices during August of 1861.

A word should be said about the colors of the two denominations. From examination of the 1861 Issue high values, the 30 cent is a much brighter orange color that its predecessor, while the 90 cent 1861 Issue is a righter blue than the 90 cent 1860 denomination. The 30 cent stamps of both issues are notorious for their color variations because of the amounts of sulfur in the pigments used to print them. The 90 cent stamps, while printed in such low quantities, nevertheless have at least two distinct shades. They are a bright medium blue and a more pale, almost pastel blue shade.

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