10c Scott 209 - Jumbo With Plate N° 481

Perhaps, my interpretation of "inaugurated" is off. 212 is a new design. 213 and 214 are color changes.

Jr. Ratfish said,



Those listings are correct, but I had said: "The ONLY stamp inaugurated in 1887 ..."

I used the word "inaugurated" to draw attention to introduction of new design features. This was the point of commonality with #209 which had been a design modification of the 10c stamps immediately preceding it in 1882. Albeit the #212 is a complete redesign of the 1c stamps introduced in 1881 [just ahead of that 10c], which did not reproduce well in the automated presses American was required to use by the contract of 1885.
At that time the designs changed and the colors did not.

By contrast, the color changes of 1887-88 were motivated by the need for the Democrats to make their mark on the stamp program once they got their man to displace A. D. Hazen, the staunch Republican 3rd Ass't PMG. Unfortunately for them the Dems failed to get Grover Cleveland re-elected in 1889, and when Hazen returned to office he undid all of their changes for the past two years with a complete overhaul of the stamp design scheme by introducing a change in the sizes of the postage denominations then in use.

In the end, I am not happy about introducing the word "inaugurated" here as a euphemism for design introduction, because the first day of a color change (irrespective of how it came about) is an inauguration too, I guess. At any rate, only one of those three got a new picture in the catalog - call it as you like.