Stamp-collecting president Franklin Roosevelt personally approved over
200 stamps issued during his presidency. Yet, FDR’s appointment of
Postmaster General James Farley led to the biggest philatelic scandal in
American history – known as “Farley’s Follies.” Beginning in 1933,
Farley removed stamp sheets from printing presses before they were
gummed, perforated, or made available to the public. He then
autographed the sheets and gave them to friends and family – creating
stamp rarities...
Postmaster James Farley signing stamp sheets as they come off the printing press. |
As
you can imagine, collectors weren’t happy when word got out because
only Postmaster Farley's friends received these rare stamps! Some of
Farley's friends sold these stamps for big prices. Congress
investigated, and FDR directed the Post Office to reprint and sell the
big sheets without gum for collectors. The reprinting began on March
15, 1935 – 85 years ago today.
No comments:
Post a Comment