Editing Stamped envelope (section)

==United States==
[[File:FawnEnvelope1883Plimpton.jpg|thumb|A fawn colored, [[United Postal Stationery Society|UPSS]] size 7, [[watermark#Watermarks on postage stamps and stationery|watermark]] 6, [[laid paper]], US postal stationery envelope from the Plimpton series of 1883.]]
In August 1852, an Act of the US Congress authorized the Postmaster General to provide "suitable letter envelopes with such watermarks or other guards against counterfeits... with the addition of the value or denomination of the postage stamps so printed or impressed thereon...." The first result was the 1853 Nesbitt issues of stamped envelopes, which was named after the private contractor who produced them for the government.<ref name=Mintz># Mintz, Allen, Ed.; ''Catalog of the 19th Century Stamped Envelopes, Wrappers, Cut Squares and Full Corners of the United States''; UPSS, 2001. {{oclc|50290906}}</ref> When the different envelope sizes, [[knife (envelope)|knives]], colors, dies to print the [[indicia (philately)|indicia]], and denominations are combined, there are literally thousands of different stamped envelopes produced for the US.<ref name=Undersander>Undersander, Dan, Ed.; ''Catalog of the 20th and 21st Century Stamped Envelopes and Wrappers of the United States'', Third Edition, UPSS, 2011. {{ISBN|978-0-9800112-8-9}}.</ref>