The Twenty-five-cent Prexie
William McKinley, twenty-fourth President of the United States, is depicted on the twenty-five-cent value of the Prexie series. His likeness was taken from a medal produced by the United States Mint. Stamps were issued in sheet format only.
Twenty-five-cent Prexies were first released December 2, 1938. A total of 1,469,132,200 were issued then through 1959.
Many of the possible uses of the twenty-five-cent Prexie were on foreign mail, but twenty-fve cents was the registered domestic air mail rate from late 1946 to the end of 1948. This rate was also effective for registered air mail to Canada and Mexico.
A certified letter with return receipt cost twenty-five cents in the later 1950's, and registered official penatly mail posted outside Washington, D.C. cost that from the beginning of 1949 through 1951. Another twenty-five cent rate involved airmail to and from Canton Island from mid 1945 to late 1946.
Earlier foreign twenty-five cent rates include surface mail to Europe, then to India and within India by air, airmail to Venezuela, to Barbados two different times, and to the Netherland West Indies, and surface mail to South Africa, then airmail to Egypt. For a short time in 1945 it was the airmail rate to Colombia as well.
In late 1946 twenty-five cents became the airmail rate to Asia, the Pacific and Africa, other than the U.S.S.R. before late 1961, Turkey, and Mediterranean North Africa.
Twenty-five cents was the rate for a registered letter with return receipt requested sent surface mail to a UPU country from the beginning of the Prexie period to the beginning of 1945, and from early 1945 until the end of 1948, surface mail without return receipt. A surface special delivery letter to a UPU country was twenty-five cents from the beginning of the Prexie period until late 1953.
Other twenty-five cent solo possibilities involved fourth class mailings and multiples of lower rates. Another unusual solo use was possible for insured double or triple weight airmail from late 1946 to 1949.