Adorned Definitives

❦ Priority Page ❦

When the Bureau of Engraving & Printing took over producing postage stamps for the U.S. Post Office, they initially had to use the designs of their predecessor (i.e., American Bank Note Company). Those stamps were very drab in design compared to the work they were doing with dollar bills and stock certificates. For the new century, they decided to design some new stamps that would show what they could do. For commemorative stamps, they designed and printed the Trans-Mississippi and the Pan-American series (see the previous page). For definitive stamps, stamps that are printed in abundance and used everyday, primarily on letters, Raymond Ostrander Smith designed these stamps, known as the 1902 Series – although most were not released until 1903.

The style of these stamps is ornate, with unique images framing the person depicted on each stamp, relecting something about them. For instance, the image of Abraham Lincoln shows two female statues holding an olive branch, symbolizing how he reunited the country. Benjamin Harrison was known for legislation related to education, so there’s a statue of a woman reading and another sculpting a child statue. The Benjamin Franklin stamp, because of his research into electricity, has two male statues holding light bulbs. Daniel Webster, who was known for coalitions in Congress, has the sign of strength, a fasces on each side of his image – a joining together of smaller elements to make something stronger.

The set of stamps includes some other firsts. The first woman, Martha Washington, was honored on a U.S. stamp. The first thirteen-cent stamp, which was the first stamp with Harrison on it. This is also the first set of U.S. stamps in compliance with the color and usage convention of the Postal Union: green for postcards, which were one cent; red for letters, which were two cents; and blue for international postage, which were five cents.

Despite how beautiful are these stamps, the public weren’t too thrilled by them. Either they were too Puritan or Calvinist, or they just didn’t like change – not this much. They criticized in particular the design of the George Washginton one. They thought the ornation minimized his image too much, which bothered them because he was such an important historic figure. As a result, it was replaced with a new design a year later. You can see that design on the bottom row of this album page. The whole series was replace a few years later with Bland Definitives: a couple of Franklin and plenty of Washington.

Note

I like the design of these stamps and the ones on the previous page very much. I wish I had all of them. Some of them are quite expensive. I hope one day to have them all – unused. I’ve bought recently some of these and several of the ones on the next page. What remains, though, are the more expensive ones.

Contains 20 spots: own 14 – 13 unused, 1 used.
Album or Web Page Last changed Mar 18, 2025

Stamp Details

The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.

spot	own	catalog	subject	description	comment
1.1	✓	300	Benjamin Franklin	1c (feb 1903) definitive, blue green	Bought from Roy Aitkens
1.2	✓	301	George Washington	2c (jan 1903) definitive, carmine	Bought thru APS Store
1.3	✓	302	Andrew Jackson	3c (feb 1903) definitive, bright violet	Bought thru APS Store
1.4	✓	303	Ulysses Grant	4c (feb 1903) definitive, brown	Bought thru APS Store
2.1	✓	304	Abraham Lincoln	5c (jan 1903) definitive, blue	Bought thru APS Store
2.2	✓	305	James Garfield	6c (feb 1903) definitive, claret	Bought thru APS Store
2.3	✓	306	Martha Washington	8c (dec 1902) definitive, violet black
2.4	✓	307	Daniel Webster	10c (feb 1903) definitive, red brown	Bought thru APS Store
2.5	✓	308	Benjamin Harrison	13c (nov 1902) definitive, purple black	Bought thru APS Store
3.1	✓	309	Henry Clay	15c (may 1903) definitive, olive	Won at Auction; Concord, NH
3.2	✗	310	Thomas Jefferson	50c (mar 1903) definitive, orange
3.3		311	Adml. David Farragut	$1 (jun 1903) definitive, black
3.4		312	James Madison	2$ (jun 1903) definitive, dark blue
3.5		313	John Marshall	5$ (jun 1903) definitive, dark green
4.1	✓	314	Benjamin Franklin	1c (oct 1906) definitive, blue green	Bought from Michigan
4.2		315	Abraham Lincoln	5c (may 1908) definitive, blue
5.1	✓	319	George Washington Type I: Leaf by Left 2 Merged	2c (nov 1903) definitive, carmine
5.2		319a	George Washington Type II: Leaf by Left 2 Closed	2c (nov 1903) definitive, lake
5.3	✓	320	George Washington Imperforated; Same Type I	2c (oct 1906) definitive, carmine	Bought thru APS Store
5.4		320a	George Washington Imperforated; Same Type II	2c (jan 1908) definitive, lake

Footnotes

Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).
Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.
Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.
To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.