The Graf Zeppelins of 1930
Flat Plate · Perf 11 · 200 Subject Plates · First Day: April 19, 1930 in Washington, D.C.65¢ Zeppelin 93,536 sold · $1.30 Zeppelin 72,428 sold · $2.60 Zeppelin 61,296 sold
Much has been written about the Graf Zeppelin stamps and they remain one of the more popular U.S. issues to this day. They were not intended to be air mail stamps, but it would be unclear as to where else they would be placed in the catalog. In any event, Scott has decided the matter by naming the stamps C13, C14, and C15.
From the beginning the Zeppelins were intended as promotional items for collectors, promoting the triangular "Pan American" route: Friedrichshafen, Germany to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Lakehurst, New Jersey, with intermediate stops in Seville, Spain and Pernambuco, Brazil.
Only a small portion of the revenues derived from the use of these large denomination stamps went to the German and U.S. postal services, with the balance going to the Zeppelin Company in Germany. However, any stamps that were sold as souvenirs to collectors who did not utilize the Zeppelin service represented nearly full profit for the U.S. postal service.
Great care was taken to make the stamps as presentable as possible, including no straight edges. The P.O.D. even appealed to the speculative nature of American collectors by announcing that no more than a million sets would be printed, and that the Zeppelins would remain on sale for only a little over two months and that the remaining stock would be returned to Washington and destroyed on June 30, 1930. The one million figure was far smaller than any recent commemorative and the two month sales life seemingly guaranteed a return on investment.
However, only 227,260 of the 3,000,000 or so possible Zeppelin stamps were sold. The face value of the set, $4.55, was a lot of money in the depression years. Since only 61,296 of the $2.60 stamp were sold, the scarcity and desirability of these stamps is understandable. But when one compares this with the more or less contemporaneous 3¢ Farley sheet of 1935, Scott 767, with only 85,914 issued, a number only slightly larger than the number of $2.60 Zeppelins sold and actually less than the number of 65¢ Zeppelins sold, there is obviously more to the story. Truly, the romance of the Zeppelins has not died!
