essay 1839, Treasury Competition essays for the first postage stamp, seven different designs, six by Charles Whiting (three are multicolor), two are inscribed 'Post Office Permit', three others are illustrated in volume I of Gibbons (page 7, figure 13), the other essay is by R.W. Siever which is also illustrated in Gibbons (page 6, figure 13), most are fine-very fine, two of the essays with different 1961 and 1981 German expert certificates est.