Ratifying States
In 1787, the U.S. Constitution was written and debated over a four-month period. In September of that same year it was signed by the members of a Constitutional Convention, which was composed of delegates from each of thirteen American colonies – later to be the first thireen states of the U.S. Before the Constitution could take effect, the Seventeenth Article called for the approval or ratification of the Constitution by a super majority of the states before it could be adopted:
Article 1
The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same.
In this case, seventy percent were needed to ratify it. However, all thirteen ratified it over three years. Each state discussed the Constitution in their local legislatures and voted to accept it. There was some opposition to various aspects of the Consitution, mainly complaints about the rights of individuals being missing. To this the Continental Congress promised to add later a set of Amendments defining the rights of citizens and people within the newly formed nation – known as the Bill of Rights. These were passed by the new Congress and then ratified by each state, with North Carolina being the last state to ratify the Consitution and the Amendments. Any further amendments – either a whole amendment or a change to a previous one, no matter how slight, requires a majority of the states to ratify them – I’m not sure if a simple or super majority is required.
Note
These design of these stamps commemorating the ratification of the U.S. Constitution by each of the states is quite good. I like the look and feel, the colors and the drawings. I like the drawings forf New Jersey, Connecticut, and Maryland. I like all of them except for the one for Delaware. The one for New Hampshire has the rock face in the White Mountains that looks like a old man’s profile – which has since collapsed. I saw that when I was a boy (see Old Man). I’m pleased that Leuchtturn put them all on the same page, rather than scatter them around based on the dates they were issued over a three period based on when the anniversaries of the ratifications. Actually, that’s probably more to the credit of Scott catalog assigning them sequential catalog numbers.
Contains 13 spots: own 13 – 13 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Jul 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 |
Constitution & Decl. of Independence
✓ |
2336 |
22c (jul 1987) |
|||
✓ |
2337 |
22c (aug 1987) |
|||
✓ |
2338 |
22c (sep 1987) |
|||
✓ |
2339 |
22c (jan 1988) |
|||
✓ |
2340 |
22c (jan 1988) |
|||
✓ |
2341 |
22c (feb 1988) |
|||
✓ |
2342 |
22c (feb 1988) |
|||
✓ |
2343 |
25c (may 1988) |
|||
✓ |
2344 |
25c (jun 1988) |
|||
✓ |
2345 |
25c (jun 1988) |
|||
✓ |
2346 |
25c (jul 1988) |
|||
✓ |
2347 |
25c (aug 1989) |
|||
✓ |
2348 |
25c (may 1990) |
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.
