Smudges

In 1908, when the Bureau first issued Bland Definitives, they didn’t make any high-end denomination stamps, the two-dollar and five-dollar stamps. They still had plenty of those from the 1902 series.

In 1917, with people sending packages to Russia because of the Russian Revolution, the demand for these two stamp values increased unexpectedly. They exhausted the supply, suddenly. The Bureau didn’t have time to design a new stamp, so they reused the old plates for the two-dollar James Madison and five-dollar James Marshall stamp designs from 1903 to print new stamps (see the Paint Chips page).

In 1918 and 1920, with the World War and the Russian Revolution ended, they took the time to design new two-dollar and five-dollar stamps, the first and third stamps on the first row here. Compared to the dull ones of the previous ten years, these were fairly nice looking. The second one is a slight error in that it was printed with carmine ink instead of orange-red like the first one.

Note

Pursuit to the tidiness method of collecting, I feel good about having completed the second and third row with all unused stamps. One more to finish the last row. The one that will be slow going is the top row. Those are expensive stamps, although I like how they look. They each cost from four-hundred to seven-hundred dollars in unused condition. It may be a long time before I complete this page, despite my recent progress.

Contains 20 spots: own 14 – 12 unused, 2 used.
Album or Web Page Last changed Mar 20, 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

Definitives - No Watermark; Flat Plate

1.1		523	Benjamin Franklin	2$ (aug 1918) definitive, red orange & black
1.2	✗	547	Benjamin Franklin	2$ (nov 1920) definitive, carmine & black
1.3	✗	524	Benjamin Franklin	5$ (aug 1920) definitive, carmine & black

Blue Paper Definitives

2.1	✓	525	George Washington	1c (dec 1918) definitive, grey green
2.2		525a	George Washington	1c (dec 1918) definitive, dark green
2.3	✓	526	George Washington Type IV	2c (mar 1920) definitive, carmine
2.4	✓	527	George Washington Type V	2c (mar 1920) definitive, carmine
3.1	✓	528	George Washington Type Va	2c (mar 1920) definitive, carmine
3.2	✓	528A	George Washington Type VI	2c (mar 1920) definitive, carmine
3.3	✓	528B	George Washington Type VII	2c (mar 1920) definitive, carmine
3.4	✓	529	George Washington Type III	3c (mar 1918) definitive, violet
3.5	✓	530	George Washington Type IV	3c (jul 1918) definitive, purple

Imperforated Definitives

4.1	✓	531	George Washington	1c (jan 1919) definitive, green
4.2		532	George Washington Type IV	2c (mar 1920) definitive, carmine rose
4.3		533	George Washington Type V	2c (may 1920) definitive, carmine
4.4	✓	534	George Washington Type Va	2c (may 1920) definitive, carmine
4.5		534A	George Washington Type VI	2c (jul 1920) definitive, carmine
5.1		534B	George Washington Type VII	2c (dec 1920) definitive, carmine
5.2	✓	535	George Washington Type VII	3c (oct 1918) definitive, violet
5.3	✓	536	George Washington	1c (aug 1919) definitive, grey green

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.