Postage Stamps of the United States First Issued in 1919 President: Woodrow Wilson  ·  Postmaster General: Albert S. Burleson Postal Rates of January 1 - July 1, 1919 Domestic Letter Rate: 3¢ per oz. ·  Postcard Rate: 2¢  · Air Mail Rate: 6¢ per oz. Starting on June 30,  1919 - Pre-War Rates Restored  Domestic Letter Rate: 2¢ per oz. ·  Postcard Rate: 1¢  ·  Air Mail Rate: 6¢ per oz.  The Victory Issue of 1919   Flat Plate - Perf 11 - 280 Subject Plates Victory Issue of 1919  99,585,200 issued - First Day: March 3, 1919 Although known as the "Victory Issue", this stamp could just as well be known as the Peace Issue, for the allegorical figure of the "Goddess of Liberty Victorious" holding a sword in one hand and the Scales of Justice in the other, is framed by the flags of  nations which America had hoped for continued peace and cooperation. From left to right the flags are: Great Britain, Belgium, the U.S., Italy and France. The light violet color, compounded by the fact that the inks of the day were of such inferior quality, made the intricate and detailed design a poor choice. The stamp was not well received by collectors, and even with the nearly 100 million issued, well-impressioned, nicely centered copies are surprisingly hard to come by. First Day Cover collecting had not yet become common, particularly since no city had been singled out to promote new issues. For that reason covers dated March 3, 1919, are very scarce. Two shades of this stamp command a premium, the red violet and the deep red violet. The grading of this shade variation is, at best, a very subjective matter often finding experts disagreeing as to whether a stamp is the valuable "deep red violet" shade or not.  The 13¢ Franklin of 1919   Flat Plate - Perf 11 - 400 Subject Plates The 13¢ Franklin of 1919  32,285,356 issued - First Day: January 10, 1919 The 13¢ Franklin was issued primarily for use in paying  both the letter fee of 3¢ and the special delivery fee of 10¢, or the 3¢ letter fee and the 10¢ registry fee. Although this is the only variety of the Franklin 13¢ stamp, it comes in many shades. Scott lists three, of which the deep apple green brings a slightly higher premium. The Shanghai "Overprints" of 1919 In 1919, the U.S. Dollar was worth almost exactly twice the value of the standard currency in Shanghai at the time, the Maria Theresa thaler silver dollar. The U.S. postal agency in Shanghai would accept payment in U.S. currency only, making it difficult for non-American patrons to send letters via the U.S. mail system, resulting in a loss of revenue. By placing a surcharge on a portion of its stamps, the U.S. Agency in Shanghai could still offer the non-surcharged stamps at face value when payment was made in dollars and at the same time offer surcharged stamps, collecting double the face value when payment was made in thalers.  By May of 1919, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing had printed the overprints on many denominations of the normal stamps of the day, the perf 11 un-watermarked Washington Franklins, Scott 498 through 518, and shipped the overprinted stamps to Shanghai. The overprints were not issued publicly until the beginning of the 1920 fiscal year - i.e. July 1, 1919. The values issued included the 1¢ through the $1 stamps, resulting in 2¢ through $2 overprinted stamps. more ...

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