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1 Carrier Stamp Uncut Rationing Stamps; Office of Price Administration, USA
| Issuer | Office of Price Administration (OPA), USA |
|---|---|
| Year | 1942-1945 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Uncut sheet of 20 individual ration stamps on blue-tinted paper, arranged in a 4x5 grid separated by dashed perforation lines. Each stamp bears a left-aligned vignette of a US Navy aircraft carrier underway, with the legend RATION STAMP NO. and sequential stamp numbers printed in bold letterpress to the right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | RATION STAMP NO. 29 / 30 / 31 / 32 / 33 / 34 / 35 / 36 / 37 / 38 / 39 / 40 / 41 / 42 / 43 / 44 / 45 / 46 / 47 / 48 |
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| Comments |
The Office of Price Administration was a wartime federal agency with sweeping authority to control civilian prices and ration scarce goods — sugar, meat, gasoline, shoes, and more. These uncut carrier sheets were the mechanical backbone of the ration book system: individual stamps were perforated and bound into books distributed to every American household, with the OPA processing roughly 120 million ration books during the war years.
Uncut sheets survived because they were either held back before binding or recovered from printing overruns. The OPA was dissolved in 1946, and most remaining stock was pulped.