The Roosevelt Proof Printings of 1903

The production record for this group of prints, known philatelically by the name of the President during whose term of office they were made for presentation to government officials and politically important persons, is found in the BEP proving room record book#5 of the so-called “old series.”  That series runs from 1900 to the late 1920s, when the numbering was started over again with a book#1 and the customary blue impression numbers were reset to zero.

            These numbers present a problem as to when they were stamped onto the paper—before –pulling to avoid possible ink smearing on the dampened surface or sometime later.  In  either case, it is difficult to understand the meaning of the numbering scheme.  Of course, the point may be moot, as for all small die proofs, the margins were too small to show these large bold numerals stamped on either the front or back anyway.

            Also, the method of entry into the proving room books differed from the usual procedure.  The blue impression numbers are found in the left column, running from the top down in consecutive order.  The Roosevelt pulls are recorded in pencil over the original entries that were made in ink.   All the printing done on a certain press at a certain time was just penciled onto the pages of the proving room books.  There appear to have been no other numbers available for use on these 1903 Roosevelts.

            The POD, under date of Dec. 13,1902, originally ordered 75 sets of proof prints mounted in presentation albums.  This order to BEP was revised on Dec. 29, 1902 with the addition of the Newspaper/Periodical stamp designs.  The basic order was updated on Feb. 4, 1903, when ten more albums were ordered.

            The first proof prints for this special order were pulled on Jan. 12, 1903, from what I believe was P.O. Die 88, the 1875 reprint die for the 5c and 10c 1847 stamps.  The final prints were made on March 5, 1903 from P.O. Die 301, the 5c vignette die for the 1901 Pan-American issue.  Used to print the 308 “small” die prints found in a Roosevelt presentation album were 293 different dies numbered from 1 through 343.

            However, the data show that the Bureau pulled no fewer than 100 impressions for each stamp design needed for the 85 albums and sometimes more than that quantity.  Color experimentation may well be one of the reasons for the excess but the proving room books do not list the various colors.  Proofs in excess of the basic 100 probably consist of ink test pieces made to establish the desired color.  A small number of these excess prints may be black die proofs pulled to check the state of the dies.

            One of the better examples hinting that black large die proofs, India paper on card, may have originated in the 1903 special printing occurs in the 1c of 1887 catalogued as Scott 212TC1.¹  Two known black die proofs show a penciled number “1” or “2” in the upper right portion of the die sinkage.  Those numbers probably signify first or second impression pulled.  No one has yet reported a number higher than two.  The more important number on these black proofs is “130”, found at the lower left corner.  That P.O. die number was assigned to this die in 1897 when the POD turned it over to the BEP, the POD in turn having received it from the American Bank Note Co. in 1894.

            The production record for P.O. Die 130 shows that two impressions were made on Feb. 13, 104 impressions were pulled.  These may have consisted of four ink test pieces to fix the color desired and then 100 impressions from which 85 were selected for mounting in the presentation albums.

            In my article published in The Essay-Proof Journal, 1993, Vol. 50, pages 121-126, I presented a tentative list of four dozen-plus black die proofs that may owe their origin to the 1903 special printing.  It is unfortunate that most of these prints have been cut down, removing the important penciled numbers referred to above.  Those POD die numbers, first assigned in 1897, prove that the prints could not have been pulled before that year but that they most likely were in the Roosevelt presentation album project.  I suspect that some, if not all, of these Roosevelt remainders got out of the BEP between 1903 and 1914 when another special printing of small die proofs was made.

            I have seen a number of Roosevelt proofs in shades or even colors that differ from those in the presentation albums.  Some of these could be the aforementioned ink test pieces, and some appear never to have been mounted in albums on the characteristic Roosevelt gray card pages.  However, proofs in albums sometime show shade differences that can be explained thus:  the production records show that the prints were made in two or more working sessions, sometimes days apart.

Between the Roosevelts and
the Panama-Pacifics

            The remainders of the Roosevelt small die proof prints may have been used later to assemble presentation albums of another sort.  One that keeps coming up in my research  is an alleged 1912-13 album.  A check of the proving room books #34-39 (November 1911-December 1913) showed no production of new proofs for another album project.  But after seeing a large number of remainders from the 1903 special printing, I concluded that the BEP had in stock sufficient prints to assemble at least 15 more albums with Roosevelt-like proofs.

            The dozen or so proof prints from the alleged 1912-13 album do show the standard four to five millimeter margins typical of the Roosevelts but appear to be on a different paper, one that is yellow wove reminiscent of the subsequent Panama-Pacifics.  They have Philatelic Foundation certificates stating that they are Panama-Pacifics (P2a’s) but I now believe that they are not such or even any other printing between 1903 and 1915.  They are simply remainders from the 1903 special printing, even ink test pieces of that date, and that may explain the shade differences with bot the regular 1903s and the later 1914-15 prints.

            Additionally, aging of the paper may be another factor.  The 1903 prints may have been stored in envelopes or stock books at the BEP and yellowed, as is known to be the case with the later Panama-Pacifics that were in high-sulfur content envelopes for about 18 years.  Recently I saw a Scott 214P2 on yellow wove paper that showed an area of white paper where a hinge had been removed.  Therefore I feel it may be advisable to re-think the notion that yellow wove paper makes these prints Panama-Pacifics.  I think a more correct term for these remainders should be “yellowed wove paper.”

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