This stamp features the image of a Great Depression-era eight-wheel tractor trailer truck. There are two versions of the stamp--engraved and photogravure. The engraved stamp was issued on May 25, 1991, at Secaucus, New Jersey. There were 84,817 first day covers. The photogravure version was issued on May 25, 1994, again at Secaucus, New Jersey. This time there were only 15,431 first day covers.
The 10-cent Tractor Trailer, along with the 5-cent Canoe, reflects the new post office policy of covering all categories of first-class presort and bulk third-class mailings with just two stamps. The 10-cent Tractor Trailer covered all the rates first-class presort and bulk regular third-class mail. It was service-inscribed “Additional Presort Postage Paid” to indicate that it was a false franking and that additional postage had been paid at the post office.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing produced the engraved stamp on the C press with plate numbers at intervals of forty-eight stamps. Only plate 1 was used. It was issued in coils of five hundred and 3,000 stamps. The photogravure stamp was also printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, but this time it was printed on the Andreoti press and issued in rolls of five hundred or 3000 stamps. The plate numbers appeared in the form of two single digits--plate numbers 11 and 22 were issued with plate numbers at intervals of twenty-four stamps.
The stamp was designed by David K. Stone of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and engraved by Gary Chaconas, who did the vignette, and Gary Slaught, who engraved the lettering.
