Blue

At some point, the Bureau of Engraving had quality control problems with the paper they were using for printing stamps. The stamps would expand slightly from the moisture of the ink. They had to be dried before they could be perforated. As they dried, they would shrink so much so that when the sheets of stamps were run through perforation machines, the performations would be out of line with the edges of the stamps. A large amount of the stamps had to be discarded.

As a possible solution to the problem, the Bureau tried in 1909 adding rag to the wood pulp when making the paper. As part of their testing, the added a hint of blue or gray ink to the rag material to distinguish these stamps from ones made with paper containing no rag and all wood pulp.

Note

These stamps cost from a couple hundred dollars each to a few thousand dollars each. I don’t think I’ll own any of them very soon. Some I’ll probably never own. I should just remove this page from my album. I’ll wait, though, to see if it’s possible to get some of them for a reasonable price – or at prices I can afford.

Contains 10 spots: own 0 – 0 unused, 0 used.
Album or Web Page Last changed Mar 19, 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

Blue Paper Definitives

1.1	357	Benjamin Franklin	1c (feb 1909) definitive, green
1.2	358	George Washington	2c (feb 1909) definitive, carmine
2.1	359	George Washington	3c (feb 1909) definitive, deep violet
2.2	360	George Washington	4c (feb 1909) definitive, orange brown
2.3	361	George Washington	5c (feb 1909) definitive, blue
3.1	362	George Washington	6c (feb 1909) definitive, red orange
3.2	363	George Washington	8c (feb 1909) definitive, olive green
3.3	364	George Washington	10c (feb 1909) definitive, yellow
4.1	365	George Washington	13c (feb 1909) definitive, blue green
4.2	366	George Washington	15c (feb 1909) definitive, bright ultramarine

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.