Dale's Online Course In Philately

We have assembled the writings of some of the world's greatest experts on stamps and philately to provide you with a wonderful series of instructive "seminars" on the countless aspects of collecting postage stamps. As this series grows in content it will become an outstanding reference for all collectors who wish to learn more about their hobby. Additional "classes" in our Online Course in Philately will be added here every month. We invite you to visit here often---and feel quite free to PRINT OUT retain copies of each class.

Dale Philately
Course 102
Some Historical Background On
Two Popular Series of
United States Stamps
One of the greatest joys of collecting United States stamps is the fact that there is almost always an enjoyable and
intriguing story behind them. There are, for instance, great tales behind the discovery of some of our major errors as with the 24-cent inverted airmail stamp of 1918, which was purchased by a stamp collector in Washington, D.C.

In 1869, after the U.S. Post Office Department had been issuing stamps depicting our Founding Fathers for 22 years (since our first stamps in 1847), a decision was made to change the format of America's postage stamps from rectangular to square—and depict not only Washington, Franklin and Lincoln, but pictorial designs such as the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Thus the definitive issue of 1869 was born. With four of the stamps printed in two colors, it is considered today to be one of our most beautiful sets. But people didn't think so in 1869! In fact, there was a giant public outcry when the 1869's were issued. People didn't like the smaller format and they especially didn't like the pictorial depictions on the stamps. Newspapers all over the country published editorials in protest of their issuance. The POD was aghast at what they had done and immediately went back to the drawing boards to produce a brand new issue.

Consequently, the 1869's were only in formal use for less than a year. They were replaced in 1870 by what many deemed as a rather boring set of formal bust-like depictions of famous Americans. Best of all, though, the lovely 1869's are still within the budgetary reach of most collectors. They are tiny colorful jewels on an album page and, contrary to when they were issued, they are very, very popular with philatelists!

Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Farley's Follies"
One of the first things President Franklin Roosevelt did upon being elected president in 1932 was to appoint his
campaign manager, New York politician James A. Farley, as his Postmaster General. Farley, in order to please the
president, immediately embarked upon a policy of giving his boss full uncut (and imperforate) sheets of each new
stamp issue just before they were to be released. In addition, Farley would also be generous with other luminaries
in the FDR administration by giving similar sheets to some of his and FDR's friends and cabinet members.

When stamp collectors found out about this favoritism, they began to holler loudly that FDR and Farley had
created special issues for their friends...with items that would never reach the hands of the public. The issue was
even debated in Congress and, together with pressure from the general public (and most particularly, philatelists),
Farley was urged to do something to right this wrong. So...in 1935 (Scott Nos. 752-771 inclusive), Farley re-issued all of the uncut, imperforate sheets (mostly representing the National Parks issue of 1943) to the general public.

This created a longstanding collector bonanza. Collectors began acquiring the sheets...then cutting them up into
gutter pairs, blocks, line pairs, etc.---thus creating a whole range of new collectibles. These unusual issues became
known as "Farley's Follies" for, in the annals of philately, they are not only virtually unique, but represented one
of those rare occasions when people in government admitted a mistake and proceeded to make it right!

Certainly among the most beautiful and striking
stamps the U.S. ever issued are the series of
pictorials issued in 1869.