Have
you ever heard of Narcotic Tax stamps? They reflect an important part
of our nation’s history. After the Revenue Act of 1918, these special
Narcotic Tax stamps were created. They were issued to help raise money
to fund WWI. Drug importers, manufacturers, and producers all had to
place them on drug packages to show the tax had been paid.
The very first Narcotic stamps were Documentary stamps of 1914.
Today marks the 290th anniversary of George Washington’s birth. Did you know he’s been pictured on more stamps than all other presidents combined?
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US #704-15 |
Key U.S. Stamp Set Honoring Washington’s 200th Birth Anniversary |
On February 20, 1915, the Panama-Pacific Exposition opened in San Francisco, California. It honored the discovery of the Pacific Ocean and the completion of the Panama Canal. The Post Office Department began planning a set of commemoratives for the exposition in 1904. By 1912, nine designs were on sale. Since the exposition didn’t open until 1915, the Panama-Pacific stamps remained current for nearly three years – longer than any other commemoratives!
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Famous Wild West rodeo star Bill Pickett was chosen as a subject for the 1994 Legends of the West se-tenant sheet of 20. But USPS authorities didn’t know the image they chose would embroil them in one of history’s biggest stamp controversies… |
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In
1898, America and Spain were fighting for control over Cuba. Spain
deployed over 200,000 soldiers to Cuba, so President McKinley sent the
battleship Maine to protect US interests. On February 15 – 20 days after arriving in Havana Harbor – the ship mysteriously exploded, killing 260 crew members.
The Maine
explosion ignited the Spanish-American War. To help fund the war, the
US taxed many different consumer products: liquor, matches, and
medicine, and more. This led to issuing beautifully engraved battleship
Tax stamps, issued the same year the Maine sank.
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US #3192 |
1998 USS Maine Explosion |
Today
marks Thomas Edison’s 175th birth anniversary. It goes without saying,
he’s one of the most famous and prolific inventors and businessmen of
all time. Fittingly, his tremendous impact on the world has been
commemorated on US stamps. As I look at them, I wonder how it must’ve
been to live in a world without lightbulbs! I can’t imagine the
excitement that pulsed through the crowd at Menlo Park, NJ, as Edison
first unveiled his famous electric bulb…
Thomas Edison died on October 18, 1931, as one of the most well-known and respected men in the world at that time.
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On February 1, 1995, the USPS issued two Love stamps that were both popular and controversial. They featured child angels taken from Raphael’s massive masterpiece, the Sistine Madonna. The USPS thought they’d be perfect for new stamps in the Love Series. However, C. Douglas Lewis, a curator at the National Gallery of Art and vice chairman of the Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee, warned that child angels represented death – not love.
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US #2949
