Washington & Franklin

George Washington was the first president of the U.S. He was also the General of the the Continental Army during the revolution and served in other key roles in the early years during the formation of the U.S.

Benjamin Franklin was also an instrumental person in the founding of the United States, a signatory of the U.S. Constitution, and, related to the U.S. Post Office, the first Postmaster General.

For some reason, the Post Office seems to have been infatuated with the two of them. Almost all of the stamps issued for decades, of which millions were printed, depicted exclusively Washington or Franklin, with a few of Thomas Jefferson, the second president. It would not be until 1861, until the Civil War, a stamp of someone else was issued: Andrew Jackson, a president from the South. Even after that, for decades the primary images on stamps were of Washington and Franklin.

Not only did they depict exclusively a few people, they reused many of the same images of them for new issues of stamps. Sometimes the differences were the face amount and sometimes the color. However, sometimes the color deviated only slightly (e.g., red, carmine, red carmine, rose, lake, etc.). Sometimes the deviation was the size of the perforation used to separate stamps, the type of paper, watermarks, embossing (i.e., grills), and other factors. The end result is album pages of stamps that seem identical, but have enough deviations to warrant unique catalog numbers – and spots on the pages here.

Note

As you can see, I have only a couple of these stamps – assuming I’ve categorized these stamps correctly – and they’re used. I prefer to have only unused stamps. However, these stamps are very expensive in unused condition. I could buy used stamps, but that would still be expensive, albeit not as costly. Later, when if I decide to buy unused ones, I’ll then have expensive extra stamps I’ll have to try to sell. I’d rather not go through that.

Only two stamps in my Italy collection costs more than I can afford to the point in which I’ve settled on used stamps: the first stamp of the Kingdom of Italy; and a €20,000 stamp of the then King. Maybe it’s because in the U.S. there are many more collectors than stamps available in the early years of the U.S., than compared to the number of collectors relative to the availability of stamps – actually, that’s probably exactly why U.S. stamps cost more.

Contains 26 spots: own 5 – 0 unused, 5 used.
Album or Web Page Last changed Jun 3, 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
1.1		18	Benjamin Franklin Type I	1c (jan 1861) definitive, blue
1.2		19	Benjamin Franklin Type Ia	1c (sep 1857) definitive, blue
1.3		20	Benjamin Franklin Type II	1c (jul 1857) definitive, blue
1.4		21	Benjamin Franklin Type III	1c (oct 1857) definitive, blue
2.1		22	Benjamin Franklin Type IIIa	1c (jul 1857) definitive, blue
2.2		23	Benjamin Franklin Type IV	1c (jul 1857) definitive, blue
2.3	✗	24	Benjamin Franklin Type V	1c (dec 1857) definitive, blue
2.4	✗	25	George Washington Type I	3c (may 1857) definitive, rose
2.5		25A	George Washington Type II	3c (may 1857) definitive, rose
2.6	✗	26A	George Washington Type IIa	3c (jul 1857) definitive, orange red
3.1		27	Thomas Jefferson Type I	5c (mar 1858) definitive, brick red
3.2		28	Thomas Jefferson Type I	5c (aug 1857) definitive, red brown
3.3	✗	94	George Washington	3c (jan 1867) definitive, red
3.4		29	Thomas Jefferson Type I	5c (jan 1859) definitive, brown
3.5		30	Thomas Jefferson Type II	5c (may 1861) definitive, orange brown
3.6		30A	Thomas Jefferson Type II	5c (mar 1860) definitive, brown
4.1		31	George Washington Type I	10c (aug 1857) definitive, green
4.2		32	George Washington Type II	10c (jul 1857) definitive, green
4.3		33	George Washington Type III	10c (aug 1857) definitive, green
4.4		34	George Washington Type IV	10c (oct 1857) definitive, green
4.5	✗	35	George Washington Type V	10c (apr 1859) definitive, green
5.1		44	George Washington Plate I	12c (jan 1875) definitive, greenish black
5.2		36B	George Washington Plate III	12c (dec 1859) definitive, black
5.3		45	George Washington	24c (jan 1875) definitive, blackish violet
6.1		38	Benjamin Franklin	30c (aug 1860) definitive, orange
6.2		39	George Washington	90c (sep 1860) definitive, blue

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.