Series of 1902 (United States postage stamps)
The Series of 1902, also known as the Second Bureau Issue, is a set of definitive postage stamps in fourteen denominations ranging between one cent and five dollars, produced by the U. S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing and issued by the United States Post Office. Two denominations appeared in November and December 1902 and the other twelve were released between January and June 1903. These stamps were assigned the Scott Catalogue numbers 300 through 313. Also considered part of the series is a fifteenth stamp which appeared in November 1903—a second  version of the 2¢ value (Scott #319), the original having faced severe criticism. This series, particularly noted for its exceptional ornateness and opulence of design, remained in circulation until late 1908, when it was superseded by the Washington-Franklin Issues. Design and production. Despite its name, the Second Bureau Issue was, in fact, the first definitive series designed exclusively by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. For its first issue (1894), the Bureau had not had sufficient time to produce new images, and so, chose to retain the existing stamp designs produced by the American Banknote Company for the 1890  series, modifying these only slightly by adding in the upper corners of the stamps. Only four years later did the Bureau's postage stamp unit have the opportunity to prove that it was capable of something more than this utilitarian effort, when the Post Office elected to issue a commemorative set in honor of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition. The resulting Trans-Mississippi Issue remains one of the most admired of all U. S. Stamp sets, designed in an elaborate and flamboyant visual style surely intended to demonstrate that the Bureau could attain an unimpeachably high level of engraving creativity and  craftsmanship. The Bureau aimed at similar sumptuousness in its next commemorative series, the 1901 Pan-American Exposition Issue, and this artistic approach then came to U. S. definitive stamps with the Series of 1902. The style of these three series reflects a wider phenomenon found in the turn-of-the-twentieth-century American arts: a ubiquitous embrace of the profusely ornamental Beaux-Arts style offered by the "White City" complex erected at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Post Office officials, in fact, had been so pleased with the Pan-American Issue that they were eager to produce a  new definitive issue that would publicize their efforts, and in February 1902 instructed the Bureau "to employ special pains to produce a series particularly attractive and distinctive, and fully as creditable as the Pan-American." The result of these "special pains" was a series that, unusual for a definitive set, employed a different and highly individual design for each stamp (by contrast, a uniform design plan had governed all the stamps of the preceding First Bureau Issue). The visual imagery of the 1902 designs, replete with suggestions of architectural features such as caryatids, friezes, plinths, marble columns "etc." (many of  them iconographically suited to the persons portrayed), was paralleled by an equally eclectic approach to typography, several different fonts being employed for letters and numerals, and several different styles of curvature being applied to some text. One notable feature of the designs is the tendency of pictorial details to protrude into left and right borders of the stamps: the arms, knees or robes of allegorical statues, the tops of flagstaffs, the beaks of eagles, the shields enclosing the numerals--even a sailor's grappling hook and a marine's musket. All fourteen original designs were the work of Raymond Ostrander  Smith, whose designs for the Pan-American series and the Trans-Mississippi Issue had won much acclaim. For the first time in a definitive set, the birth and death dates of the famous Americans depicted appeared flanking their images, a feature that would remain more common in commemorative issues. The legend "Series 1902" was printed near the top or bottom of all the stamps, even though only two of them were released in that year. (It likewise appeared on the replacement of the 2¢ value, which was not even designed until the following year.) This dating practice was carried over  from the Pan-American set, the stamps of which had all similarly identified themselves as "Commemorative Series 1901." It continued in the Special Delivery stamp of 1902 as well as the Post Office's next two commemorative releases--the Louisiana Purchase Commemorative Issue (1904) and the Jamestown Exposition Issue (1907)--but was subsequently abandoned. Closer to 19th century tradition in the series of 1902 was its pantheon of celebrated Americans. Nine of the values—the 1¢, 2¢, 3¢, 6¢, 10¢, 15¢, 50¢, $2 and $5—depicted the same statesmen who had appeared on the corresponding denominations of the First  Bureau Series. Moreover, on the 4¢ and 5¢ stamps, Lincoln and Grant merely exchanged their previous roles. Only three new subjects were chosen, but one of them represented a feminist breakthrough: Martha Washington, appearing on the 8¢ value, became the first woman ever featured on a U. S. definitive stamp, an innovation publicized well in advance. (That denomination had belonged to General William Tecumseh Sherman in both the First Bureau Issue and the American Banknote series that preceded it.) The recently deceased Benjamin Harrison graced the 13¢ value—the first 13¢ stamp ever offered by the U. S. Post Office ; while the $1 denomination, which had been devoted to Oliver Perry in the First Bureau Series, was now reassigned to a more recent naval hero, Admiral David Farragut. The Harrison issue was the first stamp of the Second Bureau Series to be released, on November 18, 1902, and the 8¢ Martha Washington followed on December 6. Also continued in the Series of 1902 was the use of the Universal Postal Union colors required of all member nations on stamps for post cards (green, 1¢), regular mail (red, 2¢) and international mail (blue, 5¢). These were meant to facilitate the  easy handling of international mail and had been adopted for the final version of the First Bureau Issue in 1898. Of the eleven remaining 1902 denominations, ten appeared in colors identical--or nearly identical--to those of their 1898 counterparts: only the 8¢ stamp was significantly different in hue. The oft-unusual iconography with which this series evokes the achievements of its famous Americans includes the following: for Franklin's electrical researches, lightbulbs in the stamp's top corners; for Grant's military exploits, eagles and flags; for Lincoln's reunification of North and South, female figures clasping U. S.  flags and holding merged palm fronds above the President's head; for Webster's congressional coalition-building, fasces; for Farragut's naval campaigns, a marine and a sailor; for Harrison's educational initiatives, muses of learning (one reading a book, one sculpting a child); for Marshall's jurisprudence, bas-relief goddesses of Liberty and blindfolded Justice. (Iconography had been almost entirely excluded from previous U. S. definitive issues. On only two stamps, both in the large banknote designs introduced in 1870, had portraits of famous Americans—General Winfield Scott and Admiral Oliver Perry—been accompanied by images suggesting their accomplishments .) While the BEP clearly aimed at a reputation for uncommon excellence with the Series of 1902, this hope went unrealized. The stamp intended for widest circulation, the 2¢ Washington normal-letter-rate value, prompted numerous objections upon its release in January 1903: the image of our first president was thought too weak, failing to reflect his iconic heroism. Indeed, according to Max Johl, fine details that showed particularly well in the black-ink die proof of the stamp on India paper were fatally compromised "when the stamps were printed on the regular stamp paper by fast presses [in] red ink  resulting in a very mediocre effect." The "New York Sun" observed that this inking problem "gave Washington the nose of a toper." Within two months, the Post Office had decided to replace this so-called Washington "flag" stamp, and in November 1903 it offered a new Washington "shield" issue, which met greater favor. (By this time, Raymond Ostrander Smith had left the BEP, and the replacement was designed by Clair Aubrey Houston.) Nor did the 1¢ stamp go unscathed on its release. "The New York Times" responded with a withering sarcasm so uncharacteristic of its normal tone that some quotation  is appropriate: But a problem more serious than press sniping plagued the Series of 1902: that the existing technique of stamp production could not ensure the quality control needed to present designs of this opulence to best advantage. For, one result of cramming so much detail into the stamps was that the images were larger than usual, leaving little white space at their edges. This defect magnified an endemic problem of stamp production at that time: that many stamps emerged from the perforation machines with the design seriously off-center. Lopsided examples of these stamps with portions of the images  cut off are all too common; and relatively few collectors have succeeded in assembling a complete set of the 1902 series in which all the denominations are well-centered. These issues, like all previous U. S. postage stamps produced since 1861, were "perforated 12" according to the standard gauge ("i. e.", twelve holes in a two-centimeter span). In another continued practice, the 1902 stamps were printed on a special paper embedded with watermarks reading "U S P S" in double-lined letters. This paper, a forgery-detection device, had been introduced into the First Bureau Issue in 1895, a  year after its first release, following the appearance of fair-quality counterfeits of the 1894 2¢ stamp. The double-line watermark remained in use until 1910. The Washington-Franklin Issues which gradually replaced the 1902 stamps beginning in late 1908 represented a drastic stylistic reaction to the profusion and variety of elaborate ornament marking their predecessors. All the stamps of the new series essentially conformed to a . The Series of 1902 circulated for only six years. By comparison, the stamp images previously available, many originally produced for the 1890 issue and modified in the First Bureau Series, had remained on  sale for as long as twelve years, while the subsequent Washington-Franklin Issues would survive for almost fifteen years. Reprints of the higher denominations. The initial issue of the Washington-Franklin stamps in 1908-1909 comprised only twelve denominations, with a top value of $1. Supplies of $2 and $5 stamps from the Series of 1902 at post offices were then so ample that there seemed no point in issuing replacements. Indeed, stocks remained adequate until early 1917, when a sudden increase of parcels sent from the U. S. to revolution-wracked Russia greatly swelled the demand  for these high denominations. As the public needed $2 and $5 stamps immediately, the Post Office elected to reprint the 1902 designs of the two issues as a stop-gap, until such time as Washington-Franklin versions could be produced. The reprints (Scott nos. 479-480) went on sale on March 22, 1917; new Franklin $2 and $5 stamps () became available only on August 19 of the following year. The two reissues are easily distinguishable from the 1903 originals because by then the Bureau had determined that perforated 12 stamps separated too easily to withstand normal  handling in post offices, and so, a coarser gauge, perforated 10, was used for the 1917 issues. Moreover, the new versions, like all the stamps of that year, were produced on unwatermarked paper. The reprints are considerably less costly to collectors than the originals (particularly the $5, which is almost ten times as expensive in the 1902 version).