A114139 Changes in United States postal rates per ounce since 1863.

-2, -2, 1, -1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 0, 3, 2, 3, 2, 2, 3, 4, 3, 3, 1, 1, 3, 2

Offset

1,1

Comments

Benjamin Franklin, first Postmaster General of the United States, applied computational complexity theory to Economics by changing the business plan for American mail by changing from payment by distance to payment by weight. "Before stamps were used a person had to collect his mail at the post office and pay for it. Franklin stopped the money loss on unclaimed mail in Philadelphia by printing in his paper the names of persons who had mail awaiting them. He also developed a simple, accurate way of keeping post-office accounts. In 1753 Franklin was made deputy postmaster general for all the colonies." [Encyclopedia Britannica]

References

R. K. Guy, Unsolved Problems in Number Theory, C12.

Links

Table of n, a(n) for n=1..24.

R. Alter and J. A. Barnett, A postage stamp problem, Amer. Math. Monthly, Vol. 87, No. 3 (1980), 206-210.

A. K. Dart, The History of Postage Rates in the United States

W. F. Lunnon, A postage stamp problem, Comput. J., Vol. 12, No. 4 (1969) 377-380.

USPS, Benjamin Franklin Commemorative Stamps

1847usa.com, United States Postage Stamps By Year.

Example

a(1) = -2 because the rate per half ounce was lowered effective 3 March 1863 from 3 cents to 2 cents; thereafter rates were per ounce.

Crossrefs

First differences of A114062.

Cf. A001212, A001213, A014616, A001208, A001209, A001210, A001211, A001212, A001213, A001214, A001215, A001216, A005342, A005343, A005344, A014616, A053346, A053348, A075060, A084192, A084193.

Sequence in context: A329040 A296978 A236000 * A195679 A029884 A309997

Adjacent sequences: A114136 A114137 A114138 * A114140 A114141 A114142

Keyword

easy,fini,sign

Author

Jonathan Vos Post, Feb 03 2006

Status

approved