Dabs
❦ Priority Page ❦
The issuing of drab definitives continues. Compared to the stamps issued in Italy for this period of time (see Modern Design and Garibaldi), it’s amazing they could not get themselves to offer stamps with something interesting on them: I explain that, though, on the Bland Definitives page about when this Washington & Franklin series first started.
It’s also a little silly that they felt the need to provide so many stamps in one-cent increments: from one to thirteen cents. Didn’t they think that customers wouldn’t just add extra stamps that were needed? Did they need a stamp for the specific amount? Maybe I’m being unfair. Maybe it’s related to the size of envelops: you can fit only a few stamps on an envelop containing a letter. But then again, you needed only two or five cents for an envelope, depending on whether the destination was within the U.S. or for international delivery.
Carmine Washington 5-Cent of 1917
There is one oddity on this page worth noticing. If you looked closely at the Paint Chips page two pages back, you may have noticed the odd stamp pair on that page. I explained there that when the Bureau printed the carmine Washington two-cent stamp, they accidentaly printed a couple of five-cent stamps in the middle of the sheets. As a result of that mistake, they violated the convention from the Universal Postal Union, which is to print stamps for international postage in blue – at that time it was the five-cent stamps.
What’s odd on the page here is that they reprinted the five-cent stamp in carmine, not blue. This time the mistake was just in the color: all of the stamps on the sheets were five-cents each. The space on this album page for that mistake is in the middle of the second row here – I don’t have one, yet. To the left of that spot is the blue five-cent stamp – the correct color for that denomination. I have one of those.
Note
From this point forward, my coverage of stamps is becoming much more respectable. Just three more pages, starting with the Warren Harding page, you’ll see that I have plenty of complete pages. For just a few pages after that point, I’m missing one or only a few on some pages, then I reach a point starting around 1929 in which I have all of the stamps for the rest of the century.
Contains 26 spots: own 21 – 20 unused, 1 used.
Album or Web Page Last changed May 10, 2024
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 |
Other Definitives
✓ |
498 |
1c (mar 1917) |
|||
498d |
George Washington |
1c (mar 1917) |
|||
✓ |
499 |
2c (mar 1917) |
|||
✗ |
500 |
George Washington |
2c (mar 1917) |
||
✓ |
501 |
George Washington |
3c (mar 1917) |
||
✓ |
502 |
George Washington |
3c (mar 1917) |
||
✓ |
503 |
4c (mar 1917) |
|||
✓ |
504 |
5c (mar 1917) |
|||
505 |
5c (mar 1917) |
||||
✓ |
506 |
6c (mar 1917) |
|||
✓ |
507 |
7c (mar 1917) |
|||
✓ |
508 |
8c (mar 1917) |
|||
✓ |
509 |
9c (mar 1917) |
|||
✓ |
510 |
10c (mar 1917) |
|||
✓ |
511 |
11c (may 1917) |
|||
511a |
11c (may 1917) |
||||
✓ |
512 |
12c (may 1917) |
|||
✓ |
512a |
12c (may 1917) |
|||
✓ |
513 |
13c (jan 1919) |
|||
✓ |
514 |
15c (may 1917) |
|||
✓ |
515 |
20c (may 1917) |
|||
✓ |
516 |
30c (may 1917) |
|||
✓ |
517 |
50c (may 1917) |
|||
517c |
50c (may 1917) |
||||
✓ |
518 |
$1 (may 1917) |
|||
518b |
$1 (may 1917) |
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.
