Louisiana Purchase

2 years later, finally finished. I really do think this was one of the better commemorative series.

Nice set! The the 3c has nice margins esp. on the top and bottom just too bad about that spot above the "o" in commemorative. The 10c also has very nice, maybe the best centering of the group.

I've just never understood why McKinley was honored with a stamp in the Louisiana Purchase series. President from 1896 until his assassination in 1901 and last president to have served during the Civil War, but I still see no significant linkage to the Louisiana Purchase to have included him in this series. Fact is that he died in 1901 and this series came out three years later. In every other case of an American president dying in office since Lincoln's assassination, the post office issued a stamp honoring them within a year of their death. Was the post office too lazy to produce a "proper" memorial stamp like they did with Harding, etal? Granted McKinley added a bit of territory to the US as a result of the Spanish-American War, but not to the degree that others did. It also surprises me that this tradition of honoring US presidents with a stamp within a year of their death applies even to those long out of office like Herbert Hoover, Truman, Nixon, and Reagan. Why did McKinley get snubbed?

Very interesting question lpmiller.

Here is something of an answer from the Smithsonian's Arago website:

"Three stamps feature men who were intimately involved in the Louisiana Purchase (1803): U.S. Ambassador to France Robert Livingston, Secretary of State James Monroe, and President Thomas Jefferson. The 1-cent stamp shows a map of the Louisiana Purchase, the first map to appear on a U.S. stamp. The subject of the 5-cent stamp depicts William McKinley, who had nothing to do with the Louisiana Purchase. He earned his place on the stamp because he was the president who signed the legislation giving federal sanction to the Exposition. This stamp essentially became a memorial to McKinley, who was assassinated in 1901."

(from: Encyclopedia of United States Stamps and Stamp Collecting, 2006)"

Thanks, panda.bear. Still seems to have been a horribly belated tribute to McKinley. Then again, Polk, who died in 1849, had to wait until 1938 (the Presidential Series) to get his mug on a stamp.

You have put together a beautiful set stallzer. Congratulations!

Fabulous set! I been working on this set forever it seems and still need the obvious 2! Congrats Stallzer!