US Regular Issues of 1922–31

Regular Issues of 1922

The Regular Issues of 1922–31 were a series of 27 U.S. postage stamps issued for general everyday use by the U.S. Post office. Unlike the definitives previously in use, which presented only a Washington or Franklin image, each of these definitive stamps depicted a different president or other subject, with Washington and Franklin each confined to a single denomination. The series not only restored the historical tradition of honoring multiple presidents on U. S. Postage but extended it. Offering the customary presidential portraits of the martyred Lincoln and Garfield, the war hero Grant, and the founding fathers Washington and Jefferson, the series also memorialized some of the more recently deceased presidents, beginning with Hayes, McKinley, Cleveland and Roosevelt. Later, the deaths of Harding, Wilson and Taft all prompted additions to the presidential roster of Regular Issue stamps, and Benjamin Harrison’s demise (1901) was belatedly deemed recent enough to be acknowledged as well, even though it had already been recognized in the Series of 1902. The Regular Issues also included other notable Americans, such as Martha Washington and Nathan Hale—and, moreover, was the first definitive series since 1869 to offer iconic American pictorial images: these included the Statue of Liberty, the Capitol Building and others.[1] The first time (1869) that images other than portraits of statesmen had been featured on U.S. postage, the general public disapproved, complaining that the scenes were no substitute for images of presidents and Franklin. However, with the release of these 1922 regular issues, the various scenes—which included the Statue of Liberty, the Lincoln Memorial and even an engraving of an American Buffalo—prompted no objections.[2][3] To be sure, this series (unlike the 1869 issues) presented pictorial images only on the higher-value stamps; the more commonly used denominations, of 12 cents and lower, still offered the traditional portraits.

This series of postage stamps was the fourth to be printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, in Washington D.C.. Postal history "firsts" in these Regular issues included the first fractional-value postage stamps, the first stamp to pay tribute to the Statue of Liberty and the first postage stamps to honor Warren G. Harding, Rutherford B. Hayes, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and William Howard Taft.

Upon release these Regular Issues were initially printed on the flat-plate printing press, into which sheets were inserted one at a time, but shortly thereafter they were produced with the Stickney Rotary press which printed images with slightly less quality and clarity but which allowed for the dramatic increases in production rates, as printing paper was fed into the press from continuous rolls of paper.[4] The Regular Issues were released over a nine-year period and can be found with three sizes, or gauges, of perforations which are used in the identification of the particular series for which a given stamp belongs.[1][5]

Subject and design

The definitive postage stamps of 1922, also known by collectors as the Fourth Bureau Issue, were issued in denominations ranging from ½-cent to 5-dollars with a corresponding subject and color for each. This would be the second issuance of definitive stamps released by the U.S. Post Office where the name of the subject was spelled out in print, unlike the Washington-Franklins previously issued where the respective subjects were presented in image form only. All the 1922–31 denominations between 1-cent and 15-cents were printed in colors identical—or nearly identical—to the colors used for their counterparts in the preceding Washington-Franklin series (new colors, of course, had to be chosen for the 1½-cent and 14-cent values, which had not previously been offered). Of the higher-denomination stamps, however, only the 50-cent value retained its Washington-Franklin color (the $2 stamp employed the same blue used for pre-Washington-Franklin $2 designs between 1894 and 1918).

The first stamp of the Regular Issues series was issued on October 4, 1922, the 11-cent Rutherford B. Hayes stamp, which also marked the hundredth anniversary of Hayes's birth. The issue was first released in Hayes' hometown of Fremont, Ohio, and in Washington D.C. Thus began the practice of issuing a new stamp on a specific day and in a particular city. The Hayes stamp is regarded by many collectors as the beginning of modern First Day Cover collecting.[5] Benjamin Franklin and George Washington were traditionally depicted on the most commonly used stamps, the 1 and 2 cent issues, typically used for post cards and 1st class letters.[6] One distinctive design feature of this series is that the stamps valued at 17 cents and higher appear in landscape format, distinguishing them from the less expensive stamps (15 cents and lower), which conform to normal portrait-orientation. Here, the Post Office amplified an idea introduced in the previous Washington-Franklin issues, where landscape format had been used for the $2 and $5 stamps. In the 1922-1931 issues, the corner ornamentation designed for the landscape issues is larger and more elaborate than—yet still aesthetically consonant with—the ornament employed on the lower values.

The Regular Issues were issued in three basic forms, consisting of sheet-stamps, coil-stamps (long strips of single stamps rolled into a 'coil') and booklet stamps (i.e., six stamps to a leaflet). There were three printings, or series, of stamps released on succeeding dates, the average series being released over the course of approximately two years. The 26 different subject themes employed for this issue were used to print more than 75 distinct postage stamp issues in three separate series over a ten-year period.[1][3]

Stamp charts

Each of the three previous definitive issues offered by the U.S. Post Office had had at least one printing on watermarked paper. This series would be the first since 1895 issued by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing without watermarks ('impressions' in the paper). Each of the three different series of the Regular Issues is differently perforated, the first being "perforated 11" on all sides (i. e., eleven holes in a two-centimeter span), the second perforated 10 on all sides and the last perforated 11 horizontally by 10½ vertically. Other distinguishing characteristics involve the actual printings: i.e., the first series was printed on the flat-plate printing press which distinguishes it from the other two series, as these were printed on the rotary press which incorporated two identical printing plates that were bent and affixed around a rotating printing cylinder. The bending of the plate produced a stamp image with slightly longer dimensions than those the flat-plate press produced. The framework designs varied depending on denomination but overall were uniform differing only in color, denomination and ornament type, while the central images depicted a variety of subjects which included presidential figures and other landmark scenes such as those of Niagara Falls, the Statue of Liberty and several other scenes.[5][7]

Nathan Hale
Benjamin Franklin
George Washington
Abraham Lincoln
View Stamp-Charts
Martha Washington
William Howard Taft
Theodore Roosevelt
James Garfield
View Stamp-Charts
William McKinley
Ulysses S Grant
Thomas Jefferson
James Monroe
View Stamp-Charts
Rutherford B.Hayes
Grover Cleveland
Benjamin Harrison
American Indian
View Stamp-Charts
Statue of Liberty
Woodrow Wilson
Golden Gate
View Stamp-Charts
Niagara Falls
American Buffalo
Arlington Amphitheater
View Stamp-Charts
Lincoln Memorial
US Capitol
Allegory of Freedom

The 1, 2 and 5 dollar denominations were printed only once, early in 1923, with the Flat-Plate printing press, unlike most of the others which were later reprinted with the Rotary Press also.[1]

Warren G. Harding
Memorial Issue of 1923

Untimely appearance of Harding

With the sudden death of Warren G. Harding on August 2, 1923, the U.S. Post Office was quick to release a memorial stamp in his honor only one month later, a record. By and large, it incorporated the same design as the Regular Issues of this time, the only differences being 1) that the dates of Harding's birth and death were inscribed in the upper two corners of the stamp, 2) that no hatch-lines appear in the rectangular frame and 3) that the corner circles are a solid color. Clair Aubrey Houston designed this issue in one day using a modified version of the existing frame to surround an image taken from a copperplate etching of the late Harding. The issue was first released on September 1, in Harding’s hometown of Marion, Ohio, and in the District of Columbia. Four varieties were ultimately issued: a flat plate printed perforated 11 and a rotary plate perforated 10, an error imperforate that was then officially reproduced, and a very rare version, the rotary perforated 11 (discussed below in "Oddities of the issue"). The black colored memorial stamp itself is not considered a Regular Issue by collectors, however its basic design and theme was used in the three separate printings of the 1½-cent stamp that was added to the regular Issue a year and a half after the memorial issue.[26]

Issue of 1925
Issue of 1930

It was in March 1925 that the Post Office added the 1½-cent Harding stamp to the current Regular Issues. Printed in brown, it uses the same profile that had appeared in the memorial stamp. The ornaments in the upper two corners of the design are found on no other stamp of the 1922-25 Issues, and the rectangular frame and corner circles remain unfilled.

In 1930 another regular issue was slated to honor Harding, but at the request of Harding's widow, Florence, a full faced image of Harding was engraved after a photo provided by the former First Lady.[3][26] The corner ornaments, frame-hatching and corner circles are now identical to those on all other stamps in the series between ½-cent and 14-cents.

Coil stamps

The coil stamps of the Regular issues have for themselves one distinguishing feature and were all issued with gauge 10 perforations, both in vertical and horizontal formats. These coil stamps were printed by the rotary press from continuous rolls of paper, hence the printed image is slightly longer in one direction than their flat-plate counterparts. Coil stamps were issued in a limited range of denominations which include 1, 1½, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10 cents only, denominations of 11-cents and greater not existing in coil form.[1] The 6-cent Garfield coil was the last stamp issued in this definitive series, produced in 1932 for use on double-weight letters after the first-class letter rate had been raised to 3 cents.

Selected issues:
Jul.18, 1923
Jan.15, 1923
Aug.18, 1932
View Stamp-Charts

Kansas-Nebraska Overprints

Kans. / Nebr. overprints of 1929

The Kansas-Nebraska Overprints were Regular Issue stamps with an added black colored overprint that read 'Kans.' or 'Nebr.' and were issued on May 1, 1929. The letters in the overprint resemble typewriter characters with serifs. Only the denominations of 1-cent to 10-cents were overprinted. The overprints were authorized and added to the 1926–27 printings to counter the rash of stamp thefts suffered by various mid-western rural Post offices. It is estimated that a one-year supply of the Regular Issues received the overprinting. Officials believed that stamps overprinted with the abbreviated names of the individual states would be difficult to sell, or 'fence', in other states. The original plan was to produce overprints for all states, and Kansas and Nebraska were selected to initiate the experiment. As events turned out Kansas and Nebraska were the only states to receive this type of overprint. Every Post Office in Kansas and Nebraska received overprinted stamps except for those in Kansas City, Topeka, Wichita, Omaha, and Lincoln: in these larger cities, security at post offices was considered adequate; accordingly, the use of overprinted stamps was deemed necessary only in small, usually rural, post offices. Unfortunately, the rules for selling these overprints resulted in general confusion among both customers and postal clerks: consequently, the overprinted stamps remained in use for less than a year, being discontinued on March 29, 1930. Printed with the Rotary Press, the overprints were issued with perforation size, 11 x 10½. The overprints were added before the stamps received their adhesive gum on their backs. Fakes and forgeries exist for some of the more valuable overprint issues which are usually detected by noting the impression the forged letters leave in the adhesive gum on the reverse of the stamp, as any fraudulent overprinting is always applied after the stamp has received its gum and has been issued.[1][3][27]

Oddities of the issue: coil waste and sheet waste stamps

There are a few stamps of this series—all dating from 1923—with features that set them apart from the normal sheet stamps discussed and charted above, although at first glance they may seem identical to the standard products. Ranging from moderately to extremely rare, these are so-called "coil waste" and "sheet waste" issues. That is to say, they were produced from stamps left over after the long rotary-printed rolls of paper had been cut into normal sized coils or sheets (the roll ends being too small to be processed for coils or sheets with the standard equipment). Although these stamps closely resemble the standard flat-plate press sheet issues, their designs are somewhat longer or wider than normal because rotary printing stretches the image slightly.
Coil waste:

Sheet waste (made from vertical rotary printings intended for perforated 10 sheets):

These sheet waste stamps are both so rare that their existence was still undiscovered when Max Johl completed his exhaustive three-volume study The United States Postage Stamps of the Twentieth Century in 1937.

Duration of usage

The Regular Issues were released over a ten-year period and—with the exception of one stamp—were the only definitives in general use until 1938 when the Post Office offered the Presidential Issue. The exception, released on June 15, 1932 in anticipation of the impending rate increase on standard letters from 2¢ to 3¢, scheduled for July 6, was a 3¢ Washington regular issue stamp. Rather than designing this hurried production entirely from scratch, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing modified the 2¢ stamp from the Washington Bicentennial Issue which had been released at the beginning of the year, and already looked very like a definitive. The Bureau needed only to change the numerals, to remove the stamp's sole commemorative feature (the date ribbons surrounding the portrait) and to print the stamp in the purple ink traditionally used for the 3¢ denomination. The result was that a Washington definitive issue for the normal letter rate—an invariable feature of American postage since 1870—remained continuously available to the public. The 3¢ Lincoln stamp from the 1922 series still sold widely in 1932 but disappeared from post offices the following year, prompting such protests that the Bureau had to reprint it from new plates in early 1934.[29] During the six years following the final release of the regular issue in 1932, a steady stream of 3¢ commemoratives appeared which helped to meet the basic postal needs of the country. The Regular Issues of 1922-1932 are among one of the longest running issues of definitive postage, for their duration of common usage—sixteen years—exceeded that of the Washington-Franklin issues of (1908–22) and is surpassed only by the Presidential Issue, which appeared in 1938 and was only partially replaced in 1954, with several denominations remaining available for several years thereafter.[1]

See also

Preceded by
Washington-Franklin Issues		 US Definitive postage stamps
1922–1931 		Succeeded by
Presidential Issue


References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Jones, William A. (2010). Kloetzel, James E., ed. Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps and Covers. Scott Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-89487-446-8.
  2. ↑ "Pictorial Issues (1869-1870)". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved 25 March 2011.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Kenmore Collector's Catalog", 2010 Winter addition, catalog #906
  4. ↑ Printing & Production Equipment, Smithsonian N.P.M.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Smithsonian National Postal Museum
  6. ↑ "Fourth Bureau Issues (1922-1930)". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Scotts Specialized Catalogue, US Stamp Identifier
  8. ↑ "1/2-cent Hale". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved 19 March 2011.
  9. ↑ "1-cent Franklin". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  10. ↑ "2-cent Washington". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
  11. ↑ "1 1/2-cent Harding Portrait". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
  12. ↑ "7-cent McKinley". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved 26 March 2011.
  13. ↑ "8-cent Grant". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved 26 March 2011.
  14. ↑ "9-cent Jefferson". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved 19 March 2011.
  15. ↑ "10-cent Monroe". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved 27 March 2011.
  16. ↑ "12-cent Cleveland". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved 25 March 2011.
  17. ↑ "14-cent American Indian". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved 26 March 2011.
  18. ↑ "15-cent Statue of Liberty". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved 22 March 2011.
  19. ↑ "17-cent Wilson". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved 28 March 2011.
  20. ↑ "20-cent Golden Gate". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved 26 March 2011.
  21. ↑ "25-cent Niagara Falls". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  22. ↑ "30-cent American Buffalo". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
  23. ↑ "50-cent Arlington Amphitheater". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved 26 March 2011.
  24. ↑ "1-dollar Lincoln Memoria". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved 28 March 2011.
  25. ↑ Smithsonian National Postal Museum
  26. 1 2 "Harding Memorial Issue". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
  27. ↑ Kansas & Nebraska Overprint Issues (1929)
  28. ↑ "Siegel Encyclopedia Stamps" (PDF). http://www.siegelauctions.com. Retrieved 2013-12-01. External link in |publisher= (help)
  29. ↑ King, Beverly; Johl, Max (1935). The United States Postage Stamps of the Twentieth Century, Volume III. H. L. Lindquist., p. 72.

Further reading

External links

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