United States Standard Stamps (1922–1931)

Unlike the earlier standard series, which was attended only by portraits of George Washington or Benjamin Franklin , other US presidents were depicted in this series. The series not only restored the historical tradition of honoring several presidents at once, but also expanded it. In addition to the usual presidential portraits of Lincoln and Garfield , the series also featured the hero of the Civil War Ulysses Grant and the founding fathers of the United States - Washington and Jefferson . The series also immortalized the presidents - Heys , McKinley , Cleveland and Roosevelt .

After the death of Harding, Wilson and Taft , it was decided to supplement the series of regular stamps with portraits of these presidents. In the same series, Benjamin Harrison received recognition as a great figure of the United States , much later than his death (in 1901), although his portrait was already on the postage stamps in the 1902 series. The new series also included portraits of the following famous Americans:

• Martha Washington - First Lady of the United States , Wife of the First President of the United States, George Washington , and
• Nathan Haley - the national hero of the United States .

In addition, this standard series was the first since 1869, on which pictorial images were presented, including the Statue of Liberty, the Capitol building, and some other subjects ^[1] .

In 1869, when the first attempt was made to change the standard stamps, which usually depicted Franklin, Washington and other government officials, the American public perceived the appearance of stamps with different subjects. However, after the release in 1922 of new stamps with plot images, including the Statue of Liberty , the Lincoln Memorial and even engravings of the American buffalo, no public objection followed ^{[2] [3]} . For fidelity in this series (as opposed to the release of 1869), pictorial images were placed only on high-denominations. At the same time, traditional portraits of presidents and other prominent personalities of America were still imprinted on the more widely used low-quarter stamps, for example, 12 cents and below.

This series of postage stamps was the fourth in a row, which was made at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing . For the first time in US history, stamps with fractional nominal values ​​were included in the series, as well as with images that popularized the Statue of Liberty , other architectural monuments and landmarks honoring Presidents Warren Harding, Rutherford Hayes, Grover Cleveland , Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and William Taft .

The stamps of the described regular issue were originally printed using a flat-bed printing machine into which the sheets were inserted one at a time. However, they soon began to be produced using the rotary printing machine by Berjamin Stickney ( Benjamin Stickney ), with slightly lower quality and clarity, but with a significant increase in production, as the paper was fed from continuous rolls during printing ^[4] . That is why this regular series of postage stamps over the period of nine years was printed in three sizes and with different perforations, which is used to identify a specific series to which a particular stamp belongs ^{[1] [5]} .

The final postage stamps of 1922 were issued in denominations ranging from ½-cent to 5 dollars with the corresponding image and color for each. This was the second edition of the standard stamps issued by the US Postal Department, where the name of the personage depicted was spelled on the face of the stamp, unlike previous stamps with the image of Washington and Franklin , printed without a definitive inscription. All stamps of 1922–31 from 1 cent to 15 cents were printed in colors identical or almost identical to the colors used in the previous “Washington-Franklin” series (new colors, of course, should be chosen for 1½ and 14 cents such which were not previously proposed). Of the higher-grade brands, only the 50-cent mark retained its color used in the Washington-Franklin series, and another $ 2 mark was used in the previous series, which appeared between 1894 and 1918.

The first stamp of the series was published on October 4, 1922 - an 11-cent stamp dedicated to Rutherford Hayes , who, by the way, had a centenary in 1922. This brand was first released in Heiss's hometown, Fremont, Ohio. In Washington, at the same time, the sale of a new series began. The brand dedicated to Hayes is considered by many collectors as the brand that marked the beginning of collecting the first day envelopes ^[5] . Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, as before, were traditionally depicted on the most frequently used stamps of 1 and 2 cents, which are usually used for postcards ^[6] . A distinctive feature of the this series is that stamps, valued at 17 cents and above, appeared in landscape format, which distinguished them from less expensive stamps (15 cents and below), which correspond to normal portrait orientation.

The regular issue was issued in three main formats: sheet stamps, stamp coils (long strips of single rolled stamps in the coil format) and a stamp booklet (that is, six stamps on a sheet). Three series of stamps were issued for about two years ^{[1] [3]} .

Each of the three previous episodes produced by the United States Post Department was at least printed on watermarked paper. This is the first series since 1895 that the Engraving Bureau has printed without watermarks. Each of the three different series is differently perforated, the first series of stamps are perforated on all sides (i.e. eleven holes in the 2 cm gap), the second is perforated in 10 holes on all sides, and the last series is perforated in 11 holes horizontally and 10 vertically . Other distinguishing features include the printing method: the first series was printed on a flat typographic plate, while the other two series were printed with a rotary press. The size of the frame designs varies depending on the nominal, but in general are similar, differ only in color and type of ornament, while the central images depict various objects or persons, as well as figures with nominal. Images from the third series included: Niagara Falls, the Statue of Liberty and several other famous monuments and sites ^{[5] [7]} .

Nathan Hale

The half cent mark, issued by the US Post Office, was the beginning of a new postal tariff set in 1925. Hale was chosen for the portrait for the brand by General Postmaster Harry New. The brand was designed by Aubrey Houston, who modeled the image of Hale from a photograph of a statue of Hale located at Yale University ^{[7] [8]} .

Benjamin Franklin

The engraving of the portrait of Franklin on this stamp was the same as on the stamp of the previous issue of Washington-Franklin. Engraved by Marcus Baldwin, working in the US Post Office in Washington, he modeled his work with a photograph of a plaster bust of Franklin, created by Jean-Jacques Caffieri in 1777 . This stamp is one of the few in the series that was released in sheets, in rolls and in the form of a brochure ^{[7] [9]} .

George Washington

The denomination of the first stamp was 2 cents, this stamp was printed in millions of copies. The brand continues the tradition, begun in 1847, to depict Washington on commonly used stamps. Like engravings by Franklin and Marcus Baldwin, the engraving in this series was taken from the same die as in previous editions, known as the Washington-Franklin ^{[1] [10]} .

Abraham Lincoln

The engraving of this stamp served as a prototype for the famous artist mark Aubrey Claire Houston, who used the Lincoln engraving of George Smiley (engraver at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing), which in turn was first released in 1894 . Smiley also painted his engraving on a photograph of Lincoln, made in 1864 by the famous photographer of the civil war since Matthew Brady ^[7] . The stamp was released on Lincoln’s birthday, February 12, 1923, in Washington , DC , and in Hodgenville, Kentucky , located near the birthplace of Lincoln ^[5] .

• US stamps
• Presidents (US stamp series)
• Standard brand

• Armstrong MA The United States Coil Issues. - 1979. (eng.)
• Micarelli CN Scott Identification Guide of US Regular Issue Stamps 1847-1934. - 2006. (English)
• Kenmore Collectors Catalog, 2010 Winter edition, Catalog # 906, p 37–41. (eng.)
• Scotts Specialized Catalog of the United States Stamps, 1982, Scott Publishing Company, New York, NY ISBN 978-0-89487-042-2 ; Library of Congress Card No. 2-3301. (eng.)
• Smithsonian National Postal Museum, Archives, Collections and Exhibits. (eng.)

• Statue of Freedom
• Kansas & Nebraska Overprint Issues (1929)
• The Washington-Franklin Issues , Smithsonian National Postal Museum
• Second Bureau Issue, 1902 , Smithsonian National Postal Museum
• Fourth Bureau Issue, 1922 , Smithsonian National Postal Museum
• STAMPDATA