Columbian Issue

The Columbian Issue, often known as simply the Columbians, is a set of 16 postage stamps issued by the United States to commemorate the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago during 1893. The finely-engraved stamps were the first commemorative stamps issued by the United States, depicting various events during the career of Christopher Columbus and are presently much valued by collectors.

The Columbian stamps were supplied by the American Banknote Company, which had a four-year contract for the production of United States postage stamps beginning December 1, 1889. However, where previous contracts had required printing companies to provide designs and plates at their own expense for any new stamps required by the Post Office, the 1889 contract specified that the Post Office would pay those costs. Indeed, Postmaster John Wanamaker (of department store fame) executed a new contract with American Banknote specifically for the Columbian stamps without any competitive bidding process, which allowed the company to charge 17¢ per thousand stamps, in contrast to the 7.45¢ per thousand it had been collecting for stamps of the 1890 definitive series. This arrangement prompted considerable public criticism—- not allayed by American Banknote’s argument that the Columbians’ size (double that of normal stamps) warranted a higher price—- and Wilson Bissel, who became Postmaster General after Grover Cleveland reassumed the Presidency during March 1893, attempted to renegotiate the stamp contract on terms more favorable to the Post Office.

Fifteen denominations of the series were placed on sale by post offices on Monday, January 2, 1893. They were available nationwide, and were not restricted to the Exposition in any way. This was a larger number of stamps than the United States Post Office had ever offered in a definite series, thanks to the unprecedented inclusion of stamps denominated $1, $2, $3, $4 and $5: no U. S. postage stamp previously issued had cost more than 90¢. A sixteenth stamp—- 8 cents, to provide for the newly lowered registered letter fee—- was added during March. As a result, the face value of the complete set was $16.34, a substantial sum of money during 1893. In approximate 2009 dollars, the set would cost almost $390. As a result, of the most expensive stamps, especially the dollar values, only a small number were sold. Unsold stamps were destroyed after the Columbian Issue was removed from sale on April 12, 1894. In all, the American Banknote Company printed more than 2 billion Columbian stamps with a total face value exceeding $40 million.

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