PDF files of the below counties and cities are available with their last update shown in parentheses.
(The files may be large and take several minutes to download.)
Alexander County (Jul 1st, 2014)
Alleghany County (Jul 3rd, 2014)
Anson County (Jul 1st, 2014)
Asheville (May 7th, 2015)
Ashe County (Jul 3rd, 2014)
Avery County (Jul 4th, 2014)
Beaufort County (Aug 7th, 2014)
Bertie County (Aug 9th, 2014)
Bladen County (Aug 14th, 2014)
Brunswick County (Sep 11th, 2014)
Buncombe County (Sep 18th, 2014)
Burke County (Nov 12th, 2014)
Cabarrus County (Jan 25th, 2015)
Caldwell County (Oct 20th, 2013)
Camden County (Apr 25th, 2013)
Carteret County (May 14th, 2015)
Caswell County (May 15th, 2015)
Catawba County (Jul 9th, 2015)
Charlotte (May 10th, 2015)
Chatham County (Jul 14th, 2015)
Cherokee County (Jul 17th, 2015)
Chowan County (Dec 19th, 2015)
Clay County (Dec 20th, 2015)
Cleveland County (Dec 27th, 2015)
Columbus County (Feb 2nd, 2016)
Craven County (Nov 17th, 2015)
Cumberland County (Feb 16th, 2016)
Currituck County (Feb 21st, 2016)
Dare County (Aug 1st, 2013)
Davidson County (Jun 3rd, 2010)
Davie County (Mar 13th, 2010)
Duplin County (Mar 11th, 2011)
Durham County (Nov 13th, 2010)
Edgecombe County (Mar 11th, 2011)
Fayetteville (Feb 11th, 2016)
Forsyth County (Oct 10th, 2010)
Franklin County (Nov 13th, 2010)
Gaston County (Oct 10th, 2010)
Gates County (Aug 30th, 2011)
Graham County (Mar 11th, 2011)
Granville County (Nov 13th, 2010)
Greene County (May 30th, 2011)
Greensboro (Apr 17th, 2016)
Guilford County (May 30th, 2011)
Halifax County (May 30th, 2011)
Harnett County (Aug 23rd, 2011)
Haywood County (Oct 28th, 2012)
Henderson County (Oct 28th, 2012)
Hertford County (Dec 7th, 2011)
Hoke County (Jan 30th, 2012)
Hyde County (Oct 28th, 2012)
Iredell County (Oct 28th, 2012)
Jackson County (Oct 28th, 2012)
Johnston County (Oct 28th, 2012)
Jones County (Oct 28th, 2012)
Lee County (Oct 28th, 2012)
Lenoir County (Oct 28th, 2012)
Lincoln County (Oct 28th, 2012)
Macon County (Oct 28th, 2012)
Madison County (Oct 28th, 2012)
Martin County (Apr 6th, 2013)
Mcdowell County (Oct 20th, 2013)
Mecklenburg County (Jun 3rd, 2013)
Mitchell County (Oct 20th, 2013)
Montgomery County (Jan 28th, 2014)
Moore County (Jan 28th, 2014)
Nash County (Jan 28th, 2014)
Newhanover County (Nov 12th, 2013)
Northampton County (Jan 20th, 2014)
Onslow County (Apr 20th, 2014)
Orange County (Apr 1st, 2014)
Pamlico County (Apr 18th, 2015)
Pasquotank County (Apr 18th, 2015)
Pender County (Apr 18th, 2015)
Perquimans County (Apr 18th, 2015)
Person County (Apr 18th, 2015)
Pitt County (Apr 18th, 2015)
Polk County (Apr 18th, 2015)
Randolph County (Apr 18th, 2015)
Richmond County (Apr 18th, 2015)
Rockingham County (May 25th, 2015)
Rowan County (Jul 4th, 2015)
Rutherford County (Sep 5th, 2015)
Sampson County (Oct 24th, 2015)
Scotland County (Nov 13th, 2015)
Stanly County (Dec 16th, 2015)
Stokes County (Jan 25th, 2016)
Surry County (Apr 13th, 2016)
Swain County (May 12th, 2016)
Wilmington (Apr 30th, 2015)

In 1996, the North Carolina Postal History Society published a four-volume set of books titled, Post Offices and Postmasters of North Carolina. These carefully prepared books, under the editorial leadership of Vernon S. Stroupe, documented not only the post offices and postmasters of the 6,915 different post offices in North Carolina from the pre-revolutionary times to modern times, but also illustrated all known postmarks from these offices used before the twentieth century.
A long-term project is underway to update that catalog with new postmark information from the nineteenth century and to add all the known postmarks from the twentieth and twenty first centuries. Since it will take several years to complete this work, the North Carolina Postal History Society wants to share the development of the new catalog as it is being completed, county by county. In this way we hope to make available the postmark data, which is known today, and not wait until the whole catalog is completed.
The format of the new catalog comes from the original catalog. Each post office is listed alphabetically within a county along with the postmasters of that office. Also shown are the known postmarks of that office. In many cases, the file sizes are large; however, we feel that those interested in downloading the information for their own use will find a suitable means to access those files, which are easily downloaded for users with high-speed internet access. All the data from the original catalog is presented along with the added new information. For each postmark, we will provide either the black and white tracing from the original catalog or a color scan of a new marking made from actual postmarks where available. Some of the “color scans” will be from black and white photocopies since that format was the only information available. Each marking will show a new type number, the dimension of the marking, the color of the marking, and the dates of use that we have observed. Each county of the catalog has been placed into a pdf file format that can be downloaded if desired. The major North Carolina cities, that have large postmark files have been removed from their appropriate counties and made into separate PDFs. These cities are Asheville, Charlotte, Fayetteville, Greensboro, Raleigh and Wilmington. You will see that each has a PDF of their own.
The right to the digital information contained in these files belongs to the North Carolina Postal History Society; therefore, any use other than personal is prohibited without the consent of the North Carolina Postal History Society.
In determining the classification criteria of the new markings, we have used the classification systems that have been published by different twentieth century postal historians. The classification of duplex metal handstamps was published by Richard W. Helbock and Dan Meschter in La Posta (May 1988). The Doane and 4-Bar postmark classifications were published by Doug DeRoest in La Posta (September 1990). Tony Crumbley, who maintains the Doane database for North Carolina, has provided the latest information on North Carolina Doane cancels. The machine cancellation types have be validated by members of the Machine Cancel Society. This society also has shared with us the current information of North Carolina machine markings from their extensive database of United States machine cancels.
An important part of the new information for this catalog has come from the Postal History Collection at the North Carolina State Archives. Their support of this project has been monumental. In addition, almost all the important twentieth century data has come from the Post Mark Collectors Club Research Center in Bellevue, Ohio, where they maintain the largest postmark collections found anywhere in the world. Important updates also have come from the massive records maintained by the editor of the previous catalog, Vernon S. Stroupe, who never stopped collecting information about North Carolina postmarks and graciously shared this data until his untimely death in 2006. Finally, a large number of new markings have come from collectors, such as Tony Crumbley, whose extensive collection of North Carolina postal history is unparalleled.
Our desire is that interested collectors will examine the listed markings against their collections. Where new postmarks are found or revisions to the information provided, such as dates of use, color, etc., we hope that this new information will be submitted for consideration to be included in the catalog. Please send your data to:
Richard F. Winter
5432 Geneva Terrace
Colfax, NC 27235
rfwinter@triad.rr.com
If you wish to report new postmarks, please include a 300dpi color scan or a high resolution color photocopy of the marking to the address shown, either electronically or by regular mail. Please make certain that the new postmarks show 100 percent of the actual marking size. This way the data can be incorporated into the catalog. Questions or inquiries can be referred to the address above also.