Has Anyone Seen Anything Like This Before?

Vote for F.D.?

As we know FDR was an avid collector and had some input as to stamp designs during his administrations and allowed his PMG some great latitude in issue topics & designs. I don't know off hand when the Hatch Act was put into law, ( I think maybe after his Presidency) but today it is a MAJOR violation if added to the plate (or by the government employee hand stamping the sheet after the print process).

Eligies

Thank you for your reply. I'm guessing if this was done on a large scale somebody would have come across this before. Doesn't seem ethical today but back then they played by different rules.

Yes . I have also come across one of these before unfortunately I didn't realise it was FD. Since you posted it here I remembered about that stamp. Let's see if I can dig it out from my collection and show it here.

I don't think this would have originated in the BEP but rather in the aftermarket once purchased from the post office.

I also don't think this refers to FDR. If it were to be about one of his elections, it's a poor job of checking as the "R." is missing.

More likely, this is someone else and might even be a stamp collector promoting his bid to be elected president of a club. After all, this is the era when stamp societies often used stamps to promote themselves and their events, albeit usually with the half-cent stamps.

Stampman2002: I would be of the opinion that the 'R' was understood by the portrait of the issue. I also do not think it was applied by or at the BEP but in the secondary market, maybe in a local FDR candidate elction office. I do think it is definitely connected to an election campaign of FDR.

I found something on Wikipedia regarding a nickname of F.D. for F.D.R. used only by his personal secretary. Can't say she had anything to do with stamps like this one.

LeHand quickly became a key part of Roosevelt's staff, managing his correspondence and appointment calendar.[15] She was nicknamed "Missy" by Roosevelt's younger children, who had a hard time negotiating "Miss LeHand" and soon became popularly known by this name.[16] In turn, she nicknamed her boss "F.D.", a name only she used.[15] In the summer of 1921, Roosevelt was struck by a disabling paralytic illness (diagnosed at the time as polio), leaving him paralyzed below the waist; LeHand soon became his inseparable companion.[17]

Ummm...Roosevelt's personal secretary was a man, Colonel Howe. The rank was an affectation, from what I understand. While the lady you mention was part of his staff, she was not his primary administrator, but as you point out, doing what a woman, in this period, would have done as a secretary.

I doubt she would have added the inscription to the selvage in this instance.

I'd forgotten about her. Thanks for the reminder!

No way this was added to the printing plate. "VOTE etc." was printed by letterpress/typography and not engraving. Ink is a different color, too.