It’s unusual to see a US stamp series issued over 24 years.  Originally planned as one 5-stamp set, the USPS kept issuing new lighthouse stamps because the public loved them. Howard Koslow, the artist of the stamps, told me he loved painting the designs but was surprised by their popularity.

Introduced in 1990, the Lighthouse stamp series commemorates “the classic coastal sentinels that reflect our nation’s seafaring past.”

US #2470-74 1990 25¢ East Coast Lighthouses First Stamps in the Series

The first set of five booklet stamps was issued to celebrate the US Lighthouse Service’s 200th anniversary.  Today, the service is an important part of the US Coast Guard, which also celebrated its bicentennial in 1990.  Since the 1990 Lighthouse stamps proved popular, several other five-stamp issues followed over the next several years.  Add them to your collection below.  Get the complete set and save money…

US #2969-73 1995 32¢ Great Lakes Lighthouses Five historical lighthouses, one from each of the Great Lakes.  Since the early 19th century, they’ve aided mariners through violent storms, fog, and ice. US #3787-91 2003 37¢ Southeastern Lighthouses Honors five lighthouses of  southeastern United States.  Some have survived through Civil War battles to continue guiding mariners to this day.

US #4146-50 2007 41¢ Pacific Lighthouses Pictures lighthouses on America’s Pacific coast.  They guide sailors through the waters of the Pacific Northwest coast, Alaska, Hawaii, and California. US #4409-13 2009 44¢ Gulf Coast Lighthouses These lighthouses had to withstand severe weather and the Civil War.  Few survived decades of erosion, and man’s attempts to save them. US #4791-95 2013 46¢ New England Lighthouses Some of the oldest in the US! Many have guarded America’s shorelines even before it became a country.  They’re now beloved landmarks.

PREXIES

 

I want to tell you about one of the most popular stamp series in US history – the 1938 Presidential Series.  These stamps are commonly known as the “Prexies.”  The series was approved by stamp-collecting president Franklin D. Roosevelt and pictures every US president from Washington to Coolidge.  It also includes influential figures Benjamin Franklin and Martha Washington.

One of the most interesting facts about the Prexies is the designs were found in a contest FDR ordered the postmaster general to run.  The contest asked the public to submit design suggestions for the new series.

A total of 1,122 candidates sent in their designs!  The winner was Elaine Rawlinson of New York City.  She won $500 and is forever remembered as the woman who designed the Prexies.

US #803-34

US #807(CF1) and #807(CF2) Unusual Counterfeit U.S. #807 Prexie Stamp Phony Stamp More Valuable Than the Government Issue! Get a neat piece of philatelic history that’s seldom seen in US stamp collections.  Using a blend of photography and lithograph printing, 33-year-old Nathan Levine of New York City counterfeited copies of the 1938 3¢ Thomas Jefferson stamp.  With the stamp in great demand to satisfy the first-class letter rate, Levine easily sold sheets of 100 perforate and imperforate stamps for $1.75 each until his arrest in 1949. Imperforate

US #839-51 Many lower value Prexie stamps were issued in coil rolls of 500 stamps, primarily for commercial use.  Many stamps were pre-cancelled and sold to large mailers who used machines to affix the stamps to letters. Nine different coils were issued “sidewise” with the vertical perforations between the stamps.  Four stamps were issued “endwise” with horizontal perforations between the stamps.

IMPERFORATE BOOKLETS

 We’ve recently learned stamp booklets sold in full uncut sheets have some stamps that are partially imperforate.  Press sheets of sheet stamps don’t have these imperforate varieties – only booklet press sheets do.  When these sheets are finished into booklets, the booklets are cut apart.  But on unfinished press sheets the booklets remain attached.  This makes some stamp blocks and pairs horizontally or vertically imperforate between – where the cut would have been made between two different booklets.

OKALAHOMA LAND RUSH

 

The land offered for settlement in the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 was called the “Unassigned Lands” and originally belonged to Native American tribes.  This land was held by the federal government until the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889 was passed.  This act allowed President Benjamin Harrison to open two million acres to settlers.

When the Homestead Act was signed into law by President Lincoln in 1862, settlers could claim up to 160 acres each if they lived on and improved the land.  This was the American dream for tens of thousands of people across the United States.  When land was opened for settlement, they all came to stake their claims.

US #1092 Oklahoma’s 50th Anniversary of Statehood Commemorative US #4121 Oklahoma’s 100th Anniversary of Statehood Commemorative

SCOTT #C-18 GRAF ZEPPELIN 50 CENT

 On October 2, 1933, one of my favorite US stamps was issued in New York City – #C18.  The stamp had a total of five First Days of Issue – one at each city the Graf Zeppelin stopped at from New York to Chicago.  Today, stamps have only one First Day of Issue, so this was quite unusual!  .

Only about 32,000 of the 324,070 #C18s stamps were sold.  That remaining 90% of the Post Office Department’s stock was destroyed!  That makes #C18 scarce today in any condition.  Get the stamp plus genuine covers flown aboard the Graf Zeppelin in your collection today…

SCOTT #C-14-C-17 GRAF ZEPPELIN

 

Of the many reasons why we collectors treasure the 1930 Graf Zeppelin airmails, one is the history they tell.  US #C13-15 went on sale April 19, 1930.  They were issued to commemorate the Zeppelin’s first round-trip voyage between Europe and the Americas.  These famous stamps are artifacts from that exciting time in postal history.  The Zeppelin airmails are also really scarce.  They were on sale for only five weeks, and very few sold.  All leftover stamps were destroyed!  And with the passage of almost a century, their scarceness has only increased.  Serious collectors around the world dream of owning them.  The historic Graf Zeppelin flying over New York City in 1928.  Click to enlarge.

US #C13 1930 65¢ Zeppelin Over Atlantic Ocean

US #C14 1930 $1.30 Zeppelin Between Continents …

SCOTT #C-3 JENNY 24 CENT INVERTED

 

1918 Inverted Jenny
World’s Most Famous Error Stamp

The 1918 Jenny Inverts are among the most desirable of all stamps.  Only a single sheet of 100 #C3a error stamps was sold.  A single Jenny Invert stamp has sold for $1 million!

SCOTT #1 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 5 CENT

 

1847 5¢ Franklin, Scott #1
America’s First Postage Stamp

After the success of the Penny Black, the US government issued its first-ever adhesive postage stamp in 1847.  And it pictured our first postmaster general instead of our first president!

FIRST LIVING PERSON TO HAVE A STAMP IN HIS IMAGE

 

Charles Lindbergh worked as an airmail pilot for 10 months, flying five days a week.  On two occasions, he was forced to bail out of his plane.  On September 16, 1926, his plane ran out of fuel before he could reach Chicago and he had to jump out over Wedron, Illinois.  His 4,000-foot parachute jump was the longest recorded night jump at that time.  Two months later, on November 3, he had to bail out due to bad weather – unluckily landing on a barbed wire fence!

It was while working as an airmail pilot that Lindbergh first heard about hotel owner Raymond Orteig’s $25,000 prize for the first pilot to fly non-stop across the Atlantic.  A little over a year after beginning his airmail pilot career, Lindbergh became an international celebrity when he completed the journey in his plane the Spirit of St. Louis.  

SCOTT #982 WASHINGTON & LEE UNIVERSITY

 

US #982 Issued April 12, 1949

1949 U.S. 3¢ Washington & Lee University

Pictures the first American college to offer courses in business and journalism.  George Washington saved the struggling academy with an endowment of $20,000 worth of stock.  General Robert E. Lee served as the president of the university in 1865.

CIVIL WAR STAMPS

On April 9, 1865, America’s long, bloody Civil War ended.  However, it would take years to repair the nation’s physical and psychological damage.  This included restoring the US postal system to its integrated form after the Confederate States had been responsible for their own mail during the war.
 

WORLD WAR I STAMPS

During WWI, the United States shipped lots of heavy machine parts to Russia.  These packages used a lot of postage, so demand for high denominations went way up.  By 1917, the last of the 1902-03 $2 and $5 stamps were gone and the Post Office needed stamps now.  They didn't have time to create stamps to match the current Washington/Franklin 3rd Bureau issue, so instead they used the 1903 designs.  In 1917, US stamps were perforated 10 instead of 12.  This change makes it easy to tell the 1903 stamps from the 1917 stamps…

 

PONY EXPRESS

 

On April 3, 1860, the first westbound Pony Express trip left St. Joseph, Missouri.  This first delivery arrived in Sacramento, California, just 9 days and 23 hours later.  In the mochilla, a specially designed saddlebag to hold the mail, was a message of congratulations from President Buchanan to the governor of California.

Pony Express Map by William Henry Jackson (April 3, 1860, to October 24, 1861).  Click image to enlarge.

The Pony Express could deliver mail faster than ever before.  Though rides were dangerous, the pay made it worth it – $25 a week, over $4,600 in today’s wages.  The rugged Pony Express riders were men, usually under 18 years old.  They were expected to cover 75 miles a day through all types of weather and other dangers like Indian attacks.  They picked up a fresh horse at each stop and rode straight through to their destination – day and night, rain or shine.  It was the thread that tied East to West before electronic communication was available.