1913 Panama–Pacifics Proofs
	Complete set of Panama-Pacific Small Die Proofs on Wove Paper. Sold by the Siegel firm in September 1999 (Sale 816)

Our many thanks to the author, Ronald A. Burns, for his permission to include this article in the Siegel Encyclopedia. To have an article considered for inclusion in this website, please e-mail webmaster@siegelauctions.com.

INTRODUCTION

This research paper contains the virtually complete record of the production of the 1903 (“Roosevelt”) and 1914–15 (“Panama-Pacific”) special printings of small die “proofs” (in reality posthumous proofs, or better still, just “prints”). In September 1993, I spent five days at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) in Washington, D.C., copying by hand onto a yellow legal pad a chronological listing of the production data of these two special emissions. In this endeavor I was greatly assisted by Cecilia Hatfield Wertheimer, curator, and Joyce Scott, both of the Historical Resource Center at the Bureau. Special thanks also go to George W. Brett and Barbara R. Mueller. Thanks to George for supplying information on the P.O. Die numbers which made this project possible, and to Barbara for all her help in getting this research into print.

I ended up with 27 pages of notes on the 1903 printing and 35 on the 1914–15 printing. The entries in the “proving room” record books appear to have been made in a random pattern, so it was not until I re-sorted the data by order of the Post Office Department (POD) die numbers that I realized that I did, indeed, have the virtually complete record for these printings. For ease of study I arranged the data by the order of the official POD series of stamp issues and in order of the stamp denominations.

— Ronald A. Burns

The Panama-Pacific Small Die Proof Prints

The second special printing of small die proofs occurred in the 1914–15 period. On Sept. 8, 1914, the POD ordered a set of mounted proof prints for exhibition at the Panama-Pacific Exposition to be held at San Francisco, Feb. 20, 1915 to Dec. 4, 1915. The first proof was pulled on Sept. 14, 1914, and the entire mounted set was delivered to the POD on Feb. 2, 1915. A second set, containing 413 prints, was given to the Smithsonian Institution on March 20, 1915. Currently it is the only intact set, since the whereabouts of the POD/Exposition set are unknown, indeed, if it still exists.

Production figures for this 1914–15 printing are found in the proving room record books #41–43 of the old series. Used to produce the 413 proofs as seen in the Smithsonian set were 368 different P.O. dies, numbered 1 through 604. These prints were recorded in the proving room books in the normal fashion, a single entry for each one pulled, with a blue impression number stamped onto each. The first number recorded was 664216, but since all the prints were cut down to two or three millimeter margins, none show these numbers anymore. That is why they are not listed in the accompanying tabulations.

Also, all the prints that were grouped together in the proving room books are similarly grouped here. So, e.g., under a certain printing date there will be a total number of impressions pulled in a discrete group; the disposition of same; the number, if any, that were destroyed and the date of destruction.

The last Panama-Pacific proof print was pulled on Feb. 2, 1915 from P.O. Die 29, the 5¢ 1879 postage due die, and the last blue impression number used was 695052. With all these figures now known, the question of how many Panama-Pacific small die proofs got out of the BEP about 1932 can be answered with certainty. Clarence Brazer had stated that “almost” four complete sets had gotten out. Based on the production figures, three complete sets could be assembled and a fourth would be complete except for the 10¢ & 25¢ large newspapers of the 1865 plus the $2 State Department and 12¢ POD officials of which only three were available for giveaway in 1932.

A few of the designs were printed in quantities in excess of the normal number. The 3¢ of 1851 shows a production of between 13 and 19 prints, of which 11 or 17 in two or three colors may exist. The 3¢ and 6¢ of 1869 show production of 12 prints for each, of which 10 each in the two known colors of blue and ultra-marine got out.

The production record also shows that some so-called Panama-Pacifics listed for years in Scott’s Specialized Catalogue do not exist. Two examples are Scott 158P2a & 161P2a in the 1870 series. Only three of the 3¢ Continental from P.O. Die 137 were printed but all were later destroyed, while the 10¢ Continental from P.O. Die 142 was not used at all in this printing.

Of course, this printing history does not mean that small die proof prints resembling Panama-Pacifics or even Roosevelts for these or other Scott numbers do not exist. My research shows that there were at least three and perhaps as many as five printings of the 1847 to current issues in various degrees of completeness made after 1915.

The first of these later special printings are listed in the BEP proving room record books #17–18 of the “new series.” From March to June 1933 the BEP was pulling proofs of designs from 1894 through 1933 issues with small two-millimeter margins resembling the 1914–15 size, ending up with 12 prints of each design. President Franklin D. Roosevelt received some of these sets.

The next, or “Texas Centennial,” printing is recorded in books #23–24, new series. From Feb. 11, 1936 to April 20, 1936, the Bureau made 15 sets of die proofs, 1847 through 1936 issues. Of these, four each are listed under “stock” and 11 under “modeling” in the records. It appears that the stock items were actually black large die proofs on thin, white, glazed card. Although all I saw were cut down to size, I did find two in the files with the blue impression numbers stamped on them, and that is how they are listed in the records. The items listed under modeling are probably all small die prints with two-millimeter margins resembling the 1914–15 printings.

The next printing seemed to start in early 1939 according to record book #30 and ran into #34 that goes to October 1941, where my personal research ended. It appears that the Bureau was again pulling proofs from most, if not all, the old Post Office dies from 1847 to the current issues. At first, it seemed they made enough to end up with a dozen copies of each; later they increased these to 15.

Because this activity was spread out over a long period of time, there may not have been an ordered special printing. Instead, the Bureau could have been refilling its stock books against a future call for any of these proof prints. Its stock of small die proofs, 1847 through 1893, left from the 1936 printing was probably depleted by the number of framed, mounted proof collages prepared about 1939–40 and the four sets of albums of mounted prints made for official files.²

All these later printings need to be researched more thoroughly, especially since it appears that a number of these small die proofs are in philatelic hands. I have seen such that were definitely printed after 1936, as they are prints of stamp designs issued after that date. One such group contained proofs on white wove paper, margins of three to four millimeters, with designs from the 1904 Louisiana Purchase issue to the 1945 Navy issue. At first glance these resemble Roosevelt proofs.

Another group, characterized by yellow wove paper and very narrow margins of one to two millimeters, consists of various issues from the Columbians but mostly airmails down to and including the 1952 Diamond Head 30¢. A third group, on white wove paper and with very large six millimeter margins, has a dozen plus pieces ranging from the 1869s through the Presidentials.

While my research was focused on the small die proof printings, it should be stated that special printings of large die proofs also exist in the time period covered in this paper. They were investigated by Lynne S. Warm, who wrote about them in The Essay-Proof Journal Nos. 146–149 of 1980–81, volumes 37 & 38. Under the title “Researching the BEP Proving Room Record Books,” she covered the 1934 special posthumous printing of large die proofs on white wove paper of U.S. commemorative issues from 1898 to 1934.

Someday I hope that the hundreds of proving room record books at the BEP will be microfilmed so that the information they contain will be available to a greater number of researchers who do not have the time or ability to travel to Washington, D.C. to conduct their investigations at the BEP.

1. These two 212TC1’s were two of 17 black die prints given to Charles D. Hilles, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, on Aug. 11, 1910 as proven by a letter sent along with the proofs by Joseph E. Ralph, Director of the BEP.

2. Two types of collages can be seen hanging on the walls of the BEP near the Historical Resource Center rooms. One is titled “Bureau of Engraving and Printing, UNITED STATES POSTAGE FROM 1847 to 1893.” This collage contains 204 small die prints, one of each stamp design but no color change issues are in the set. The color of any given stamp design is always the first in which that design appeared. An example would be the 1870 3¢ banknote in the set. It is from P.O. Die 138, the American re-engraved die in green. The 1887 vermilion is not in the set.

The second type of collage contains 212 small die prints and is titled “U.S. POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, UNITED STATES POSTAGE FROM 1847 to 1893.” It contains the same 204 proofs seen in the first type, but it does have eight extra proofs — an extra set of seven 1879 postage dues and the 1893 orange special delivery — not seen in the first composition. The margins of the second collage are made up of strips of plate proofs of the 15¢ and 20¢ of the 1922 series. In the four corners are blocks of nine of the $2 of the same series. In the four corners are blocks of nine of the $2 of the same series, with a single of the $5 in the center of the blocks.

References

Brett, George W., 1993, “Travers Recapitulation of U.S. ‘Proofs’ and ‘Specimen’ Information as of 1910”: The Essay-Proof Journal, Vol. 50, Nos. ¾ pp.139–44.

_____, 1933, “U.S. Post Office Dies, Nos. 1–500”: The Essay-Proof Journal, Vol. 50, Nos. ¾, pp. 145–148.

Bruns, James H., 1988, “Counting Roosevelt Presentation Albums”: The United States Specialist, February 1988, pp. 55–61.

_____, 1988–89, “The Scarcity of Panama-Pacific Proofs”: The United States Specialist, July 1988, pp. 295–304; August 1988, pp. 357–371; September 1988, pp. 419–422; November 1988, pp. 507–509; December 1988, pp. 557–563; March 1989, pp. 165–172; April 1989, pp. 195–196.

Burns, Ronald A., 1993, “Corrosion Damage on U.S. Post Office Die 138 as Used in the 1915 Small Die Proof Printing”: The Essay-Proof Journal, Vol. 50, Nos. ½, pp. 57–60.

_____, 1993, “Research Notes on U.S. 3¢ Banknote Essays, Proofs & Experimentals”: The Essay-Proof Journal, Vol. 50, Nos. ¾, pp. 121–126.

Miller, B.K., 1921, “Tentative List of U.S. Stamp Dies”: The Albemarle Stamp Collector, Vol. 7, No. 7, pp. 287–288.

Rosenthal, Jack, 1986, “New discovery on scarce U.S. proof stamps”: Linn’s Stamp News, August 25, 1986, p. 3.

Scott 1994 Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps: essay & proof sections.

Thatcher, Allan M., 1953, “The Roosevelt Album of United States Small Die Proofs”: The Essay-Proof Journal, Vol. 10, No. 38, pp. 67–71.