Postage Stamps of the United States First Issued in 1923 Presidents: Jan. 1 - Aug. 3: Warren G. Harding  ·  Aug. 3 - Dec. 31: Calvin Coolidge Postmasters General: Jan. 1 - Feb. 26: Will H. Hays  ·  Feb. 27 - Dec. 31: Harry S. New Domestic Letter Rate: 2¢ per oz. ·  Postcard Rate: 1¢  ·  Air Mail Rate: 6¢ per oz. The Regular Stamps First Issued in 1923 - The Fourth Bureaus - Series of 1922   Flat Plate - Perf 11 - 400 Subject Plates - Issued in Panes of 100 Note That the 5¢, 6¢, 11¢, 15¢, 25¢ and 50¢ stamps of this issue were issued in 1922,  hence the name of the set: Series of 1922 - see also: 1922 Series Identifier 2¢ Washington - Scott 554 First Day: January 15, 1923 4¢ M. Washington - Sc 556 First Day: January 15, 1923 9¢ Jefferson - Scott 561 First Day: January 15, 1923 10¢ Monroe - Scott 562 First Day: January 15, 1923 1¢ Franklin - Scott 552 First Day: January 17, 1923 3¢ Lincoln - Scott 555 First Day: Feb. 12, 1923 $1 Lincoln Memorial - Scott 571 First Day: Feb. 12, 1923 30¢ American Buffalo Sc 569 First Day: March 20, 1923 $2 Capitol - Scott 572 First Day: March 20, 1923 $5 Freedom - Scott 573 First Day: March 20, 1923 7¢ McKinley - Scott 559 First Day: May 1, 1923 8¢ Grant - Scott 560 First Day: May 1, 1923 14¢ American Indian Sc 565 First Day: May 1, 1923 20¢ Golden Gate - Scott 567 First Day: May 1, 1923 12¢ Cleveland - Scott 564 First Day: May 20, 1923   The Air Mail Stamps of 1923   Flat Plate Perforated  11 - 100 subject plates  De Havilland Propeller  over 6 million issued FDC: August 15, 1923 Insignia of the Air Mail Service  over 5 million issued FDC: August 17, 1923 De Havilland DH-4 Biplane  over 5 million issued FDC: August 21, 1923   Previous: Air Mail stamps of 1918 The air mail stamps of 1923 were issued to meet rates for a new trans-continental "night and day" flight service. The country was split into three zones, with 8¢ paying the rate for each zone. For example, a letter from New York to San Francisco would be 24¢ since it was carried in all three zones. Although these stamps were released to the Philatelic Stamp Agency and a handful of Post Offices in August of 1923, they were not regularly issued until nearly a year later, since the new night and day air-mail service for which they had been  provided was not yet ready in 1923. First Day covers must be from the August 1923 time-frame and are quite rare. First Flight Covers were issued at the beginning of the next fiscal year, July 1, 1924 and are somewhat more common. All three stamps have a double-transfer variety listed in Scott. Next: Air Mail "Map" stamps of 1926  The Commemorative Postage Stamps of 1923 - The 2¢ Harding Memorial Stamp   400 Subject Plates Flat Plate Perf 11 1,459,487,085 issued First Day: Sept. 1, 1923  Rotary Press Perf 10 99,950,300 issued EKU: Sept. 12, 1923 Flat Plate Imperforate 770,000 issued EKU: Nov. 15, 1923 Rotary Sheet Waste Perforated 11 x 11 only 43 examples known The Harding Memorial stamps mark one of the quickest turnarounds from concept to delivery in the history of U.S. postage stamps. President Harding, the 29th president of the U.S., died of a heart attack on August 2, 1923. Less than a month later a memorial stamp honoring his Presidency was issued. Several ideas for this memorial stamp were proposed, including a thirteen cent stamp. However, the Post Office Department decided to issue a new two cent stamp similar in size to the existing 2¢ Washington regular issue, but in a "memorial" black rather than the suggested red of the Universal Postal Union. This stamp was to be issued for a period of 90 days, at which time the P.O.D. would revert to the red 2¢ Washington. Since the decision to issue this stamp was made sometime between August 12 and August 15, it is something of a miracle that the stamp made it to Post Offices by September 1st.  The stamp was issued with possibly more publicity than any stamp that had preceded it, and the public, who viewed Harding as a national hero at the time, some compared him to Lincoln, eagerly purchased the stamp for souvenirs. (Later, Harding lost most if not all of this mystique and was widely regarded as one of our worst presidents. The pendulum is swinging back somewhat in his favor and the verdict is still out concerning his part in the corruption that surrounded his administration.) How the Bureau of Engraving and Printing managed to print over one and one half billion stamps in 3 months is also something of a miracle. It is possible the haste at which this stamp was produced might be at least partially behind one of the great rarities of 20th century U.S. stamps, the rotary press sheet waste stamp perforated 11x11.  The stamp was printed on the rotary presses, but was perforated on the flat plate, perf 11 equipment, rather than with the normal perf 10 perforating machines used to perforate the rotary press stamps of the time. According to the Siegel census. as of 2008, only 43 used singles, a used pair and a recently discovered strip of three are known. The vast majority of these are poorly centered and many have faults, only thirty are sound according to Siegel. Still, all are very collectible, to say the least.  The Sheet Rotary Rarities of 1922 and 1923 During the same time frame, possibly from late 1922 to sometime after August 1923 when the Harding stamp became available, this same "error" also occurred with a few excess one cent rotary sheets, or more likely panes of 100, of both the Washington Franklin one cent stamp and the series of 1922 one cent stamps, both of which had most likely been lain aside during the production process until a sufficient quantity was accumulated to merit perforation. Normally, these rotary sheet stamp would have been perforated 10. The Washington Franklin rotary stamp would have been the somewhat common Scott 543, but at perf 11, became the rare variety, Scott 544. The 1922 design one cent rotary stamp, first issued in April of 1923,  would have been the ordinary perf 10 rotary stamp, Scott 581, but being perforated 11, became the rarest of all regularly issued 20th Century U.S. stamps, Scott 596, with only 13 copies known as of the 2008 Siegel census. All are used and eight have Kansas City, MO cancels. A "powersearch" on the Siegel website will show many examples of these "sheet waste" rarities. Just enter 544, 596 or 613 in the Catalog # equals box to see the examples.  Rotary stamps can be identified by the size of the stamp. Rotary coil stamps are wider and rotary sheet stamps are taller than their flat plate counterparts. Although the rotary coil waste stamps are somewhat scarce, it is the rotary sheet stamps that are really rare. The exceptionally rare perf 11 rotary stamps can be distinguished by the fact that the design measures at least 22½ mm tall, whereas the common flat plate stamp rarely measures more than 22¼ mm tall.  There has been some controversy over the years as to whether these stamps were created experimentally, i.e. purposefully, or created accidentally. It does seem likely that salvage sheets were set aside, as is well documented with coil waste sheets, and when enough had been collected, these salvage sheets were given perforations. Gary Griffith's excellent work United States Stamps 1922-26 covers these rarities in depth and brings up an excellent point, "The Post Office Department was also quite sensitive at this time about intentionally creating philatelic varieties, and we have no record, for example, of any premature release of the 11 x 10½ perforations." The latter implying that if the rotary 11 perforations were experimental, there should be examples of 11x10.5 perforations before late 1926 and that is not the case. It makes sense that the rotary sheet waste stamps were created similarly to the way coil waste stamps were created. In fact, for some years, rotary sheet waste stamps were thought by some to be coil-waste stamps. The controversy has subsided and most agree today that these rarities were from sheet stamps and not coil stamps. For more on this, please read the Griffith book. Do I have a Rotary Sheet Rarity Scott 613? The 613s, along with the 596s, are among the most misidentified U.S. stamps. If stamp collectors were prospectors, the 613 look-a-likes would be fool's gold. Actually, the 613s really aren't that hard to identify, the 596 is a tougher one, although even it isn't that hard. Above all else, 613s must have a slightly streaky appearance and 596s must be a darker green, not the yellowish green of the later printings of the rotary Scott 632 and a Kansas City Missouri cancel wouldn't hurt. As can be seen in the above illustrations, the Harding rotary stamps, in general, do not have the sharp clean look of the flat plate printings. It is possible the reason for misidentification of this stamp is the fact that the measurements are very tiny, a fraction of a millimeter or two here or there and a common stamp becomes a rare one. Compound this with the fact that no two people use a ruler identically, and you have a recipe for disaster. That is why the template method can not be overemphasized (see: printing methods for more on using a template). Another template method for those who do not wish to cut a stamp in half, is to simply scan a known flat plate 610 side-by-side with the candidate rotary 613. Bring up the scan in your photo editor and copy and paste the left (or right) half of the 610 over the candidate. If the candidate is noticeably taller than the 610, then you might have a 613. Alternately, perform the same scan with a rotary 612. If the stamps are the same height, there is a chance the perf 11 stamp is a 613. There are other considerations, but if the perforations appear to be genuine it is certainly worth submitting the stamp for certification - an absolute necessity if you think your stamp might be the rare 613.  The 613 illustrated above is from the Argentum Sale: Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, Inc. February 23 1999. A complete census of all known existing copies of this rare stamp is available on the siegelauctions.com website. If you suspect you have a 613, please take a look at the Siegel census. Pay particular attention to the color scans, for example CAN-07 and CAN-08 which show the "fuzzy look" much clearer than the black and white photocopies. More on the Harding Memorial Stamp of 1923 The common flat plate stamp, perforated 11x11, is still quite plentiful, since so many were saved as souvenirs by collectors and non-collectors alike. At least one sheet of 610 was issued imperforate, something that would have been a great rarity, if not for the Post Office issuing the stamp in imperforate sheets to satisfy collector demand for the "newly discovered" imperforate stamp two months later. The original sheet could have been distinguished from the later imperforates, Scott 611, by the plate number, but it was broken up and sold as singles which are now indistinguishable from their 611 counterparts. The plate block was kept intact however, and is still highly collectible.  One would think the imperforate stamp would bring something of a premium, with production numbers of a mere 770,000, only slightly higher than the two cent Lincoln blue paper of 1909, Scott 369 at 637,000 stamps. Yet the 611 imperforate can be had quite reasonably, again because so many people saved sheets of this stamp thinking it would be valuable someday. On the other hand, the privately perforated variety of this stamp, with Schermack Type III perforations, does bring a nice premium, and a copy on cover with the Schermack Type III perforations is quite scarce. The 2¢ Harding of 1923 also marked a beginning for collectors of First Day Covers with the appearance of George Linn's cacheted cover, the first modern cachet.

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