The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-10-21
POSTAGE STAMPS FOR 1902.
The Especial Use for Which the New
18Cent Stamp is Issued.
Boston TRANSCRIPT.

Boston Transcript.
AS soon as the die proof of the first of
the new series of United States postage
stamps is approved by the Postmaster
General plates will be made and the
stamp issued tothe public. Its denomina-
ton Is l3 cents7 Benjamin Harrison oc-
cupies the center of the field
This well he the first 13-cent stamp ever
issued by the United States Up to 1879
a stamp of the value of cents had been
in use ten years. but was discontinue
duced to cents. The new Harrison
stamp will be little used in domestic
mails. Its issuance is the outgrowth of
the increased foreign registration ser
vice; covering as it will the postage and
registration fee upon a letter weighing
one-half ounce anywhere within the limits
of the Postal Union. which now includes
practically all the organized nations of
the world.
Stamp experts who have examined thu
drawing for the new stamp say it will be
one OF the finest specimens of a posta &c
stamp ever produced. excepting the IA
nous Columbian series and the Fam
American set. In addition to the usual
United States of America" and Post.
age Thirteen Cents" the Inscription 81.
ries Of 1902" together with Harrison"
and figures giving the date of birth and
DEATH appear upon the design The por-
trait was selected by Mrs Harrison and
is said TO have been the late Presidents
favorite.
When the Postofflce Department or
dered this new series 1t requested the
Treasury to make special efforts TO pro-
vide stamps that shoull te rot only dis
tinctive hut indicative Of the oroeN'sS
in tie enCravers' art in which the United
States has become famous. The Bureau
of Engraving ana Printing has entered
into the spirit Of the occa sion and will
produce the host work of which II Is ca
pable. After the Recent stamp will come
the new 4-cent This Will not contin
TO bear the familiar features Of President
Lincoln. but those of General Grant
These two Presidents change places:
Grant appears on the four and Lincoln
will later have a place on the five. There
will he something or a shaking-up m
tho postal gallery of notables when this
new series is cornletefi. Commodore
Perry who has for A score ~ wears oC-
cupied the CENTRAL oval on the one-dol1ar
80 rn--~aro1v sean hv the general nuhlic
is TO he supersoded by Admiral Farra
gut General William TeCnmseh Sher-
man. who for many wars has figured on
the Scent stamp. disappears entirely
from the series His place will he taken
npon the sta mn of that denomination by
Martha Washington.
It has been supposed ny some persons
that Martha Washington was the first
woman honorAd with a nosition unOn a
United States postage stamp. II ia re-
called. however, that the Columbian So
rias. issued n commemoration Of the
Worlds Fair contained a portrait Of
Queen Isabella of Spain. s0uearing. he
sides that Of Christopher Columbus. on
the four-dollar denomination. General
sherman while he disappears from the
Stamp series is not wholly forgotten. He
succeeds TO the place now held nv Cen
eral Grant on the return nostal card.
Tn" entire new series will probably be
on sale before the close of the present
wear They will appear one at q time as
the dies are apnroved and the plates
made. II is customary to change series
of postage stamps every. eight or ten
years The present set has performed
service rontinuouslv for twelve wears.
however. 1t Is notable that with oil tho
chang4ngs and shifNnTs Of these honors,
there is one sturdy figure who occunios
the same place on our postage stamns
that he did hftv-o~e wears ago. whom nnr
first regular series was issued. and that
IS BENJAMIN Franklin, the founder, al
most Of the american postofficc,
Through thick and thin Franklin has
never been disturbed in his occupancy Of
tho 1-cent stamp and should we come to
penny hostage, which is obviously but a
question of time the issue would arise
whether Franklin should continue in his