US Postage, 1940 To 1959

1956, 3¢ bright carmine, the 250th birthday celebration of Benjamin Franklin...

1956, 3¢ black-brown...

1957, 3¢ rose-red...

That one serves only to remind me how much I dislike $10 bills. $1, $5, and $20 bills are all that's needed. When you "bust" a twenty, you want four fives, never two tens. Then, you don't need them at all these days, if you use cards, et al.

1957, 4¢ dark blue & deep carmine; "Old Glory", 48 stars still, a Giori-press printing, and issued on July 4th...

The Giori press was used to print stamps in more than one colour, simultaneously, the sheet printed in only one pass through the press. But there was a problem: the colours tended to smear into one another. The defect is not as evident in this instance, but present nonetheless...

Such would seem to become even more obvious in the 1960s.

1957, 6¢ blue, "AIR MAIL"...

Again, there are so many issues that I do not have, none from 1958, and that's my elder brother's birth-year, my only sibling. No, that's not why; by chance rather, fate.

In addition many of these issues are showing their gums. Over the decades, same has migrated to the fronts even, due to constant fluctuations of humidity and temperature; slowly, yet dynamically. That's why a lot of these images are so bright, as the light of the scanner had reflected off of their gums. Eventually, their gums will envelop, entomb them, all.

I don't know how you are storing your stamps, but this just won't happen with steady cool, dark, and dry conditions.

Oh, those stamps were like that when I got them back in the 1990s. Yes, if humidity and temperature are controlled, regulated, then the gums may not creep.

This design was ahead of its time. It could've been issued well into the 1960s, and beyond even...

1958, 7¢ blue, "AIR MAIL", and a plate-single...

Alaska was admitted to the Union on January 3, 1959...

1959, 7¢ dark blue, "AIR MAIL"...

Hawaii was admitted to the Union on August 21, 1959...

1959, 7¢ rose-red, "AIR MAIL"...

...an interim of only eight months.

Then, why this issue on the rolls, depicting a flag with 49 stars, and released on July 4th, just one month, and a little over a fortnight, before Hawaii was admitted...

1959, 4¢ ocher, dark blue & deep carmine...

Still, the stamp is beautiful, particularly how the number of stars within each row, the 49 altogether, afford quite the symmetrical, and usually unexpected, arrangement. Indeed, it is reminiscent of flags from the past...

There, much better now, although it still has a pulled perf...

Thank you for looking.

The reason being: a flag stamp had to be issued on July 4th of 1959, no ifs, ands or buts, yet Hawaii had not yet been admitted, so by the book.