1869 Pictorial Issue

The 1869 Pictorial Issue is a series of definitive United States postage stamps released during the first weeks of the Grant administration. Ten types of stamp in denominations between one cent and ninety cents were initially offered in the series, with eight of these introduced on March 19 and 20, 1869 and the two greatest values being distributed somewhat later. During May, however, the Post Office began distributing a revised version of the 15-cent stamp, in which the original, poorly aligned frame had been modified (a diamond shape was added above the vignette); and collectors consider this eleventh stamp an integral part of the Pictorial Issue. (The two 15-cent stamps were assigned separate Scott Catalogue numbers: 118 and 119.)

The term "pictorial" denotes a revolutionary aspect of the 1869 series. Here the designers rethought the concept of what constituted an appropriate stamp subject, changing the established convention that U.S. postage stamps should present images only of dead statesmen. Such statesman-portraits appear, in fact, on only three values of the pictorial issue: the 1-cent Franklin, the 6-cent Washington and the 90-cent Lincoln. The other seven denominations contain a variety of images. Three stamps illustrate means of postal transportation: delivery on horseback (2 cent), by locomotive (3 cent) and by steamship (12 cent). Two others present historical tableaux drawn from famous paintings of crucial hemispheric events: John Vanderlyn's Landing of Columbus (15 cent) and John Trumbull's Signing of the Declaration of Independence (24 cent). The remaining values (10 cent and 30 cent) are variants of a patriotic eagle-and-shield design. An innovation no less striking of the 1869 pictorials was the introduction of the first two-color stamps of U.S. postal history, on the four denominations of 15 cents and greater. Each color had to be printed separately; and on a few sheets of the 15-cent, 24-cent and 30-cent stamps, the paper was placed in the press upside down for the second printing, resulting in America's first invert errors. These error stamps command inordinate prices: at an auction in early 2011, used copies of the three inverts realized a total of a quarter of a million U.S. dollars, and the sum would have been as much as $100,000 more had the 30-cent invert not had a small margin repair.

During the past century, the pictorial series has enjoyed warm praise in philatelic commentaries: some have expressed admiration for the boldness of its concept and the skill of its miniaturistic engraving by James Smillie, others, affection for the period charm of its illustrations. The 12-cent value, with its image of the S. S. Adriatic, is described often as a particularly beautiful stamp. Still others writers cite the nostalgic associations of the pictorials, noting that for most collectors of American stamps, the 3-cent locomotive—- a common item of which many cheap copies are available—- was the first issue of real antiquity they were able to collect, in the otherwise empty early pages of their albums. Most other values in the series, by contrast, are rare, especially the greater denominations, and for this reason as well the issue is venerated by many collectors.

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