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270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States washed from the stamp, this method would only have been moderately successful. A number of inventors patented various ideas to attempt to solve the problem. The Post Office eventually adopted the grill, a device consisting of a pattern of tiny pyramidal bumps that would emboss the stamp, breaking up the fibers so that the ink would soak in more deeply, and thus be difficult to clean off. While the patent survives (No. 70,147), much of the actual process of grilling was not well documented, and there has been considerable research trying to recreate what happened and when. Study of the stamps shows that there were eleven types of grill in use, distinguished by size and shape (philatelists have	24,400
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States labeled them with letters A-J and Z), and that the practice started some time in 1867 and was gradually abandoned after 1871. A number of grilled stamps are among the great rarities of US philately. The United States 1¢ Z grill was long thought to be the rarest of all U.S. stamps, with only two known to exist. In 1961, however, it was discovered that the 15¢ stamp of the same series also existed in a Z grill version; this stamp is just as rare as the 1¢, for only two examples of the 15¢ Z grill are known. Rarer still may be the 30¢ stamp with the I Grill, the existence of which was discovered only recently: as of October 2011, only one copy is known. # 1869. In 1868, the Post Office contracted	24,401
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States with the National Bank Note Company to produce new stamps with a variety of designs. These came out in 1869, and were notable for the variety of their subjects; the 2¢ depicted a Pony Express rider, the 3¢ a locomotive, the 12¢ the steamship "Adriatic", the 15¢ the landing of Christopher Columbus, and the 24¢ the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Other innovations in what has become known as the 1869 Pictorial Issue included the first use of two-color printing on U.S. stamps, and as a consequence the first invert errors. Although popular with collectors today, the unconventional stamps were not very popular among a population who was accustomed to postage that bore classic portrayals	24,402
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States of Washington, Franklin and other forefathers. Consequently, the Post Office recalled all remaining stocks after one year. # Bank Notes. The postage stamps issued in the 1870s and 1880s are collectively known as the "Bank Notes" because they were produced by the National Bank Note Company, the Continental Bank Note Company, then the American Bank Note Company. After the 1869 fiasco with pictorial stamp issues, the new Postmaster-General decided to base a series of stamps on the "heads, in profile, of distinguished deceased Americans" using "marble busts of acknowledged excellence" as models. George Washington was returned to the normal-letter-rate stamp: he had played that role in the issues	24,403
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States of 1851 and 1861 and would continue to do so in every subsequent definitive set until the Presidential Series of 1938. But the large banknotes did not represent a total retreat to past practices, for the range of celebrated Americans was widened beyond Franklin and various presidents to include notables such as Henry Clay and Oliver Hazard Perry. Moreover, while images of statesmen had provided the only pictorial content of pre-1869 issues, the large banknotes did not entirely exclude other representative images. Two denominations of the series accompanied their portraits with iconographic images appropriate to the statesmen they honored: rifles, a cannon and cannonballs appeared in the bottom	24,404
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States corners of the 24-cent issue devoted to General Winfield Scott, while the 90-cent stamp framed Admiral Oliver Perry within a nautically hitched oval of rope and included anchors in the bottom corners of its design. National first printed these, then in 1873 Continental received the contract—and the plates that National used. Continental added secret marks to the plates of the lower values, distinguishing them from the previous issues. The American Bank Note Company acquired Continental in 1879 and took over the contract, printing similar designs on softer papers and with some color changes. Major redesigning, however, came only in 1890, when the American Bank Note Company issued a new series	24,405
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States in which stamp-size was reduced by about 10% (the so-called "Small Bank Notes"). In 1873, the Post Office began producing a pre-stamped post card. One side was printed with a Liberty-head one-cent stamp design, along with the words "United States Postal Card" and three blank lines provided for the mailing address. Six years later, it introduced a series of seven Postage Due stamps in denominations ranging from 1¢ to 50¢, all printed in the same brownish-red color and conforming to the same uniform and highly utilitarian design, with their denominations rendered in numerals much larger than those found on definitive stamps. The design remained unchanged until 1894, and only four different postage	24,406
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States due designs have appeared to date. In 1883, the first-class letter rate was reduced from 3¢ to 2¢, prompting a redesign of the existing 3¢ green Washington stamp, which now became a 2¢ brown issue. ## Special Delivery. In 1885 the Post Office established a Special Delivery service, issuing a ten-cent stamp depicting a running messenger, along with the wording "secures immediate delivery at a special delivery office." Initially, only 555 such offices existed but the following year all U. S. Post Offices were obliged to provide the service—an extension not, however, reflected on the Special Delivery stamp until 1888, when the words "at any post office" appeared on its reprint. (On stamps of	24,407
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States future years, the messenger would be provided the technological enhancements of a bicycle [1902] a motorcycle [1922] and a truck [1925]. Although the last new U.S. Special Delivery stamp appeared issued in 1971, the service was continued until 1997, by which time it had largely been supplanted by Priority Mail delivery, introduced in 1989.) The 1885 Special Delivery issue was the first U.S. postage stamp designed in the double-width format. Eight years later, this shape would be chosen for the Columbian Exposition commemoratives, as it offered appropriate space for historical tableaux. The double-width layout would subsequently be employed in many United States Commemoratives. # Columbian Issue. The	24,408
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States World Columbian Exposition of 1893 commemorated the 400th anniversary of the landing of Christopher Columbus in the Americas. The Post Office got in on the act, issuing a series of 16 stamps depicting Columbus and episodes in his career, ranging in value from 1¢ to $5 (a princely sum in those days). They are often considered the first commemorative stamps issued by any country. The stamps were interesting and attractive, designed to appeal to not only postage stamps collectors but to historians, artists and of course the general public who bought them in record numbers because of the fanfare of the Columbian Exposition of the World's Fair of 1892 in Chicago, Illinois. They were quite successful	24,409
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States (a great contrast to the pictorials of 1869), with lines spilling out of the nation's post offices to buy the stamps. They are prized by collectors today with the $5 denomination, for example, selling for between $1,500 to $12,500 or more, depending upon the condition of the stamp being sold. Another release in connection with the Columbian series was a reprint of the 1888 Special Delivery stamp, now colored orange (reportedly, to prevent postal clerks from confusing it with the 1¢ Columbian). After sales of the series ceased, the Special Delivery stamp reappeared in its original blue. # Bureau issues. Also during 1893, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing competed for the postage stamp printing	24,410
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States contract, and won it on the first try. For the postage issues of the 1894 series, the Bureau took over the plates of the 1890 small banknote series but modified them by adding triangles to the upper corners of the designs. Three new designs were needed, because the Post Office elected to add $1, $2 and $5 stamps to the series (previously, the top value of any definitive issue had been 90¢). On many of the 1894 stamps, perforations are of notably poor quality, but the Bureau would soon make technical improvements. In 1895 counterfeits of the 2¢ value were discovered, which prompted the BEP to begin printing stamps on watermarked paper for the first time in U.S. postal history. The watermarks	24,411
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States imbedded the logo U S P S into the paper in double-lined letters. The Bureau's definitive issues of the 1890s consisted of 13 different denominations ranging from 1 cent to 5 dollars, and may be differentiated by the presence or absence of this watermark, which would appear on all U. S. Postage stamps between 1895 and 1910. The final issue of 1898 altered the colors of many denominations to bring the series into conformity with the recommendations of the Universal Postal Union (an international body charged with facilitating the course of transnational mail). The aim was to ensure that in all its member nations, stamps for given classes of mail would appear in the same colors. Accordingly, U.S.	24,412
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States 1¢ stamps (postcards) were now green and 5¢ stamps (international mail) were now blue, while 2¢ stamps remained red. (As a result, it was also necessary to replace the blue and green on higher values with other colors.) U.S. postage continued to reflect this color-coding quite strictly until the mid-1930s, continuing also in the invariable use of purple for 3¢ stamps. # Start of the 20th century. In 1898, the Trans-Mississippi Exposition opened in Omaha, Nebraska, and the Post Office was ready with the Trans-Mississippi Issue. The nine stamps were originally to be two-toned, with , but the BEP, its resources overtaxed by the needs of the Spanish–American War, simplified the printing process,	24,413
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States issuing the stamps in single colors. They were received favorably, though with less excitement than the Columbians; but like the Columbians, they are today prized by collectors, and many consider the $1 "Western Cattle in Storm" the most attractive of all U.S. stamps. Collectors, still smarting from the expense of the Columbian stamps, objected that inclusion of $1 and $2 issues in the Trans-Mississippi series presented them with an undue financial hardship. Accordingly, the next stamp series commemorating a prominent exposition, the Pan-American Exposition held in Buffalo, New York in 1901, was considerably less costly, consisting of only six stamps ranging from in value 1¢ to 10¢. The result,	24,414
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States paradoxically, was a substantial increase in Post Office profits; for, while the higher valued Columbians and Trans-Mississippis had sold only about 20,000 copies apiece, the public bought well over five million of every Pan-American denomination. In the Pan-American series the Post Office realized the plan for two-toned stamps that it had been obliged to abandon during the production of the Trans-Mississippi issue. Upside-down placement of some sheets during the two-stage printing process resulted in the so-called Pan-American invert errors on rare copies of the 1¢, 2¢ and 4¢ stamps. # Definitive issues of 1902–1903. The definitive stamps issued by the U.S. Post Office in 1902–1903 were markedly	24,415
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States different in their overall designs from the regular definitive stamps released over the previous several decades. Among the prominent departures from tradition in these designs was that the names of the subjects were printed out, along with their years of birth and death. (Printed names and birth and death dates are more typically a feature of Commemorative stamps.) Unlike any definitive stamps ever issued before, the 1902–03 issues also had ornate sculptural frame work redolent of Beaux-Arts architecture about the portrait, often including allegorical figures of different sorts, with several different types of print used to denote the country, denominations and names of the subjects. This series	24,416
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States of postage stamps were the first definitive issues to be entirely designed and printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and their Baroque revival style is much akin to that of the Pan-American commemoratives the Bureau had issued in 1901. There are fourteen denominations ranging from 1-cent to 5-dollars. The 2-cent George Washington stamp appeared with two different designs (the original version was poorly received) while each of the other values has its own individual design. This was the first U.S. definitive series to include the image of a woman: Martha Washington, who appeared on the 8-cent stamp. # Commemorative issues, 1904–1907. In these years, the postal service continued	24,417
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States to produce commemorative sets in conjunction with important national expositions. The Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri in 1904 prompted a set of five stamps, while a trio of stamps commemorated the Jamestown Exposition, held in Norfolk, Virginia in 1907. # Washington-Franklin era. 1908 saw the beginning of the long-running Washington-Franklin series of stamps. Although there were only two central images, a profile of Washington and one of Franklin, many subtle variants appeared over the years; for the Post Office experimented with half-a-dozen different perforation sizes, two kinds of watermarking, three printing methods, and large numbers of values, all adding to several	24,418
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States hundred distinct types identified by collectors. Some are quite rare, but many are extremely common; this was the era of the postcard craze, and almost every antique shop in the U.S. will have some postcards with green 1¢ or red 2¢ stamps from this series. In 1910 the Post Office began phasing out the double-lined watermark, replacing it by the same U S P S logo in smaller single-line letters. Watermarks were discontinued entirely in 1916. Toward the beginning of the Washington-Franklin era, in 1909, the Post Office issued its first individual commemorative stamps—three single 2¢ issues honoring, respectively, the Lincoln Centennial, the Alaska-Yukon Exposition, and the tercentennial/centennial	24,419
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States Hudson-Fulton Celebration in New York. A four-stamp series commemorating the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, California appeared in 1913, but no further commemoratives were issued until after World War I. The Lincoln Centennial's portrait format distinguished it from all other commemoratives released between 1893 and 1926, which were produced exclusively in landscape format. (The next U. S. commemorative in portrait orientation would be the Vermont Sesquicentennial issue of 1927, and many have appeared since.) It was also in 1913, in January, that the Post Office introduced domestic parcel post service (a belated development, given that international parcel post service	24,420
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States between the United States and other countries began in 1887). A series of twelve Parcel Post stamps intended for this service had already been released in December 1912, ranging in denomination from 1¢ to $1. All were printed in red and designed in the wide Columbian format. The eight lowest values illustrated aspects of mail handling and delivery, while higher denominations depicted such industries as Manufacturing, Dairying and Fruit Growing. Five green Parcel Post Postage Due stamps appeared concurrently. It soon became obvious that none of these stamps was needed: parcel postage could easily be paid by definitive or commemorative issues, and normal postage due stamps were sufficient for	24,421
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States parcels. When original stocks ran out, no reprints appeared, nor were replacements for either group ever contemplated. However, one denomination introduced in the Parcel Post series—20¢—had proved useful, and the Post Office added this value to the Washington-Franklin issues in 1914, along with a 30¢ stamp. On November 3, 1917, the normal letter rate was raised from 2¢ to 3¢ in support of the war effort. The rate hike was reflected in the first postwar commemorative—a 3¢ "victory" stamp released on March 3, 1919 (not until July 1 would postal fees return to peacetime levels). Only once before (with the Lincoln Memorial issue of 1909) had the Post Office issued a commemorative stamp unconnected	24,422
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States to an important national exposition; and the appearance of the Pilgrim Tercentenary series in 1920 confirmed that a new policy was developing: the Post Office would no longer need the pretext of significant patriotic trade fairs to issue commemoratives: they could now freely produce stamps commemorating the anniversaries of any notable historical figures, organizations or events. # The 1920s and 1930s. The stamps of the 1920s were dominated by the Series of 1922, the first new design of definitive stamps to appear in a generation. The lower values mostly depicted various presidents, with the 5c particularly intended as a memorial of the recently deceased Theodore Roosevelt, while the higher	24,423
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States values included an "American Indian" (Hollow Horn Bear), the Statue of Liberty, Golden Gate (without the bridge, which had yet to be built), Niagara Falls, a bison, the Lincoln Memorial and so forth. Higher values of the series (from 17¢ through $5) were differentiated from the cheaper stamps by being designed in horizontal (landscape) rather than vertical format, an idea carried over from the "big Bens" of the Washington-Franklin series. Stamp printing was switching from a flat plate press to a rotary press while these stamps were in use, and most come in two perforations as a result; 11 for flat plate, and 11x10.5 for rotary. In 1929, theft problems in the Midwest led to the s on the regular	24,424
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States stamps. (See also: Fourth Bureau issue). From 1924 on, commemorative stamps appeared every year. The 1920s saw a number of 150th anniversaries connected with the American Revolutionary War, and a number of stamps were issued in connection with those. These included the first U.S. souvenir sheet, for the Battle of White Plains sesquicentennial, and the first overprint, reading "MOLLY / PITCHER", the heroine of the Battle of Monmouth. ## Two Cent Red Sesquicentennial issues of 1926–1932. During this period, the U.S. Post Office issued more than a dozen 'Two Cent Reds' commemorating the 150th anniversaries of Battles and Events that occurred during the American Revolution. The first among these	24,425
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States was the Liberty Bell 150th Anniversary Issue of 1926, designed by Clair Aubrey Huston, and engraved by J.Eissler & E.M.Hall, two among America's most renowned master engravers. The 'Two Cent Reds' were among the last stamps used to carry a letter for 2 cents, the rate changing to 3 cents on July 6, 1932. The rate remained the same for 26 years until it finally changed to 4 cents in 1958. ## "Graf Zeppelin" stamps. The German zeppelins were of much interest during this period, and in 1930 the Department issued special stamps to be used on the Pan-American flight of "Graf Zeppelin". Although the "Graf Zeppelin" stamps are today highly prized by collectors as masterpieces of the engraver's art,	24,426
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States in 1930 the recent stock market crash meant that few were able to afford these stamps (the $4.55 value for the set represented a week's food allowance for a family of four). Less than 10 percent of the 1,000,000 of each denomination issued were sold and the remainders were incinerated (the stamps were only available for sale to the public from April 19, 1930, to June 30, 1930). It is estimated that less than 8 percent of the stamps produced survive today and they remain the smallest U.S. issue of the 20th century (only 229,260 of these stamps were ever purchased, and only 61,296 of the $2.60 stamp were sold). In 1932, a set of 12 stamps was issued to celebrate the George Washington's 200th	24,427
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States birthday 1932 Washington Bicentennial. For the 2¢ value, which satisfied the normal letter rate, the most familiar Gilbert Stuart image of Washington had been chosen. After postal rates rose that July, this 2¢ red Washington was redesigned as a 3¢ stamp and issued in the purple color that now became ubiquitous among U.S. commemoratives. ## The New Deal Era. In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt became President. He was notable not only as an avid collector in his own right (with a collection estimated at around 1 million stamps), but also for taking an interest in the stamp issues of the Department, working closely with Postmaster James Farley, the former Democratic Party Committee Chairman. Many	24,428
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States designs of the 1930s were inspired or altered according to Roosevelt's advice. In 2009-10, the National Postal Museum exhibited six Roosevelt sketches that were developed into stamp issues: the 6-cent eagle airmail stamp and five miscellaneous commemoratives, which honored the Byrd Antarctic Expedition, the Mothers of America, Susan B. Anthony, Virginia Dare and the Northwest Territories' rise to statehood. A steady stream of commemoratives appeared during these years, including a striking 1934 issue of ten stamps presenting iconic vistas of ten National Parks—a set that has remained widely beloved. (In a memorable sequence from Philip Roth's novel The Plot Against America, the young protagonist	24,429
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States dreams that his National Parks stamps, the pride and joy of his collection, have become disfigured with swastika overprints.) Choosing an orange color for the 2¢ Grand Canyon tableau instead of the standard 2¢ carmine red, the Post Office departed from U. P. U. color-coding for the first time. With a philatelist in the White House, the Post Office catered to collectors as never before, issuing seven separate souvenir sheets between 1933 and 1937. In one case, a collectors' series had to be produced as the result of a miscalculation. Around 1935, Postmaster Farley removed sheets of the National Parks set from stock before they had been gummed or perforated, giving these and unfinished examples	24,430
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States of ten other issues to President Roosevelt and Interior Secretary Harold Ickes (also a philatelist) as curiosities for their collections. When word of these gifts got out, public outcries arose. Some accused Farley of a corrupt scheme to enrich Roosevelt and Ickes by creating valuable rarities for them at taxpayer expense. Stamp aficionados, in turn, demanded that these curiosities be sold to the public so that ordinary collectors could acquire them, and Farley duly issued them in bulk. This series of special printings soon became known as "Farley's Follies." As the decade progressed, the purples used for 3¢ issues, although still ostensibly conforming to the traditional purple, displayed an	24,431
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States increasingly wide variety of hues, and one 1940 issue, a 3¢ stamp commemorating the Pony Express, dispensed with purple entirely, appearing in a rust brown earth tone more suitable to the image of a horse and rider departing from a western rural post office. ## Presidential Issue of 1938. The famous Presidential Issue, known as "Prexies" for short, came out in 1938. The series featured all 29 U.S. presidents through Calvin Coolidge, each of whom appeared in profile as a small sculptural bust. Values of 50¢ and lower were mono-colored; on the $1, $2, and $5 stamps the presidents' images were printed in black on white, surrounded by colored lettering and ornamentation. Up through the 22¢ Cleveland	24,432
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States stamp, the denomination assigned to each president corresponds to his position in the presidential roster: thus the first president, Washington, is on the 1¢ value, the seventeenth, Andrew Johnson, is on the 17¢ value, etc. Additional stamps depict Franklin (½¢), Martha Washington (1½¢), and the White House (4½¢). Many of the values were included merely to place the presidents in proper numerical order and did not necessarily correspond to a postal rate; and one of the (difficult) games for Prexie collectors is to find a cover with, for instance, a single 16¢ stamp that pays a combination of rate and fees valid during the Prexies' period of usage. Many such covers remain to be discovered; some	24,433
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States sellers on eBay have been surprised to discover an ordinary-seeming cover bid up to several hundred dollars because it was one of the sought-after solo usages. The Presidential issue remained in distribution for many years. Not until 1954 did the Post Office begin replacing its values with the stamps of a new definitive issue, the Liberty series. # Famous Americans Series of 1940. In 1940, the U.S. Post Office issued a set of 35 stamps, issued over the course of approximately ten months, commemorating America's famous Authors, Poets, Educators, Scientists, Composers, Artists and Inventors. The Educators included Booker T. Washington, who now became the first African-American to be honored	24,434
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States on a U.S. stamp. This series of Postage issues was printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. These stamps were larger in size than normal definitive issues, with only 280 stamp images contained on the printing plate (400 images was standard for the Presidential series). Notable also is the red-violet color chosen for the 3¢ stamps, a brighter hue than the traditional purple. Authors: Washington Irving - James Fenimore Cooper - Ralph Waldo Emerson - Louisa May Alcott - Samuel Clemens Poets: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - John Greenleaf Whittier - James Russell Lowell - Walt Whitman - James Whitcomb Riley Educators: Horace Mann - Mark Hopkins - Charles W. Eliot - Frances E. Willard - Booker	24,435
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States T. Washington Scientists: John James Audubon - Dr. Crawford W. Long - Luther Burbank - Dr. Walter Reed - Jane Addams Composers: Stephen Collins Foster - John Philip Sousa - Victor Herbert - Edward A. MacDowell - Ethelbert Nevin Artists: Gilbert Charles Stuart - James McNeil Whistler - Augustus Saint-Gaudens - Daniel Chester French - Frederick Remington Inventors: Eli Whitney - Samuel F. B. Morse - Cyrus Hall McCormick - Elias Howe - Alexander Graham Bell # World War II. During World War II, production of new U. S. 3¢ commemorative stamps all but ceased. Among the three issues that appeared in 1942 was the celebrated Win the War stamp, which enjoyed enormously wide use, owing partly to	24,436
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States patriotism and partly to the relative unavailability of alternatives. It presents an art deco eagle posed in a "V" shape for victory surrounded by 13 stars. The eagle is grasping arrows, but has no olive branch. A notable commemorative set did, indeed, appear in 1943-44, but its stamps, all valued at 5 cents, were not competitive with the Win the War issue. This was the Overrun Countries series (known to collectors as the Flag set), produced as a tribute to the thirteen nations that had been occupied by the Axis Powers. The thirteen stamps present full color images of the national flags of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Greece, Yugoslavia, Albania,	24,437
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States Austria, Denmark, and Korea, with the names of the respective countries written beneath. To the left of each flag appears the image of the phoenix, which symbolizes the renewal of life, and to its right appears a kneeling female figure with arms raised, breaking the shackles of servitude. The stamps with flags of European countries were released at intervals from June to December 1943, while the Korea flag stamp was released in November 1944. These stamps were priced at 5 cents, although the standard cost for a first class stamp was 3 cents. These stamps were intended for use on V-mail, a means whereby mail intended for military personnel overseas was delivered with certainty. The service	24,438
270009	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States	https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage%20stamps%20and%20postal%20history%20of%20the%20United%20States	Postage stamps and postal history of the United States persons overseas used the same method for writing letters home, and the same process was used to reconstruct their letters, except that their postage was free. The two-cent surcharge on the V-mail letters helped pay for the additional expense of this method of delivery. Because of the elaborate process necessary for the full-color printing, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing contracted with a private firm, the American Bank Note Company, to produce the series - the first U. S. stamps to be printed by a private company since 1893. Uniquely among U. S. issues, the sheets lack the plate numbers usually printed on the selvage surrounding the stamps. In the places where the numbers normally appear	24,439