1902–08 Issue
	$5.00 Dark Green (Scott No. 313) Siegel Sale 804 (lot 520)

The 1902 Issue is the first regular issue designed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and it was prepared during the Roosevelt administration. The 1894 Bureau stamps were an adaptation of earlier American Bank Note Co. designs, and the Trans-Mississippi and Pan-American issues were commemoratives on sale for a relatively short period of time.

The series of fourteen denominations featured for the first time a famous American woman, Martha Washington. Previously, the $4.00 Columbian portrayed Queen Isabella, and the newspaper stamps depicted allegorical female figures and an anonymous Indian woman. The Bureau took great pains to make the new designs elaborate and artistic in an effort to draw attention to the Post Office and use of the mails. The new series was greeted enthusiastically and remained current until 1908 when it was replaced by the Washington-Franklin series.

The 1902 Issue produced some of the greatest rarities of twentieth century United States philately. Prior to the Post Office Department’s experimentation with coils in 1908, it provided imperforate stamps to private vending- and affixing-machine companies who perforated the stamps to fit the mechanisms of their patented devices. The sale of imperforate stock to these companies resulted in the first non-error imperforate stamps to officially reach the public since 1856. However, the imperforates were not sold at post office windows. The 5¢ is scarce with an estimated 2,000 sold. The greatest rarity is the 4¢, Scott 314A, which exists only with Schermack Co. Ty. III perforations. Only six unused pairs and nine unused singles are recorded in our census of Scott 314A.

In 1908 the Post Office Department issued experimental coils of their own. The first coils, issued in rolls of either 500 or 1,000 stamps, were put together by hand from sheets of stamps. After every 20 stamps (two panes of 100), the sheets had to be pasted together in order to continue the roll. This gives us the so-called “paste-up” pairs on the earlier issues. Eventually, coils would be produced on rotary web-fed presses, eliminating the need for joining sheet stamps together.

The first government coils were assembled in a vertical format, but only small quantity of 1¢, 2¢ and 5¢ vertical coils were distributed — Scott 316, 317 and 321 are three of the twentieth century’s rarest stamps. Only twelve pairs and a single are recorded of the 1¢ Scott 316, and four pairs and two covers (one intact) are known of the 2¢ Scott 321. The only intact cover bearing Scott No. 321 was sold in our Zoellner auction (Sale 804, lot 531) and realized $170,500.

Census Information for 1908 Issue Coils

4¢ Brown, Imperforate, Schermack Ty. III Private Perforations unused (Scott No. 314A) 1¢ Blue Green, Vertical Coil (Scott No. 316) 2¢ Carmine, Ty. I, Vertical Coil (Scott No. 321)