Post Civil War
Only a few stamps were issued during the American Civil War – see the previous album page. The country was in crisis and too busy to worry about designing and printing new stamps. The stamps on this page were issued after the war ended.
Besides the usual persons depicted on U.S. stamps (i.e., Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, and Jackson), a new stamp was issued, one of someone new. In 1867, they printed a stamp of Abraham Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln was a self-educated lawyer and congressman from Illinois for one term. After leaving congress, he worked as a lawyer. In 1858, Lincoln ran for the U.S. Senate against the incumbent, Stephen Douglas.
Lincoln and Douglas had several debates around the state during the campaign, known as the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. Lincoln’s motivation for re-entering politics after ten years was the passing of the Kansas–Nebraska Act drafted by Douglas in 1854, which allowed slavery in U.S. territories. His hope was to unseat him. A major component of his debates with Douglas was related to slavery. Lincoln argued that although he saw slavery as a right in states that had it in place before joining the union, it should not be expanded to new territories and new states. Essentially, one was for slavery while the other not enough.
Although Lincoln lost the Senate race, he became known nationally for his debates with Douglas and his moderate stance on slavery. Two years later he ran for president and won, becoming the sixteenth president.
At the this time, there was tension among the southern states owing to a movement to abolish slavery that Lincoln’s debates and speeches had fueled – despite that not being his message. They were concerned before Lincoln was elected that the U.S. government would end slavery. When he was made president, they decided slavery abolision was imminent, so they seceded from the union and formed the Confederate States of America (see Confederate States). Two months later, impatient for U.S. troops to leave Confederate territory and thinking that the U.S. government intended to forcibly take back the Confederate states, they attacked Fort Sumter, which started a war.
Note
As you can see, I have very few of these stamps. They are not cheap, the ones I’m missing. The ones I have are used – I prefer to collect only unused stamps. It’s tempting sometimes to buy used ones until I can afford to replace them with unused stamps. If I did that, I would want to buy ones that have clean cancelations, ones that aren’t heavily marked, making it difficult to see the stamp underneath. Used stamps from this time, though, in unused condition cost a good bit. I’m reluctant to pay too much for a stamp I might replace later.
For example, the first stamp that belongs on this page if it’s unused might cost about $ 1800. For an unused one, without an obstructing post mark, will cost about $ 600. Both conditions are out of my price range, although the clean used one is possible. The first stamp on the fifth row would cost about $ 700 unused, but only about $ 185 for the condition of the used one I have here. The Lincoln stamp at the end of that same row might cost about $ 150 in the condition it’s in.
It’s a difficult decision for me to decide to buy used stamps. For now, I focus unused that I can afford. Once I have all them, I’ll come back to these and see where I am financially.
Contains 23 spots: own 6 – 0 unused, 6 used.
Album or Web Page Last changed Mar 22, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
86 |
1c (jan 1867) |
||||
85A |
1c (aug 1867) |
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84 |
2c (jan 1867) |
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87 |
2c (jan 1867) |
||||
✗ |
93 |
2c (jan 1867) |
|||
85B |
2c (aug 1867) |
||||
79 |
3c (aug 1867) |
||||
82 |
3c (jan 1867) |
||||
83 |
3c (nov 1867) |
||||
85 |
3c (jan 1867) |
||||
85C |
3c (aug 1867) |
||||
✗ |
88 |
3c (jan 1867) |
|||
80 |
5c (aug 1867) |
||||
85D |
10c (aug 1867) |
||||
89 |
10c (jan 1867) |
||||
✗ |
36 |
12c (jul 1857) |
|||
90 |
12c (jan 1867) |
||||
97 |
12c (jan 1867) |
||||
91 |
15c (jan 1867) |
||||
✗ |
98 |
15c (jan 1867) |
|||
✗ |
78 |
24c (oct 1862) |
|||
✗ |
71 |
30c (aug 1861) |
|||
72 |
90c (nov 1861) |
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.
