Great Americans series
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The Great Americans series is a set of definitive stamps issued by the United States Postal Service, starting on December 27, 1980 with the 19¢ stamp depicting Sequoyah, and continuing through 2002, the final stamp being the 78¢ Alice Paul self-adhesive stamp. The series, noted for its simplicity and elegance, is a favorite of stamp collectors.[1] It is being supplanted by the Distinguished Americans series which started in 2000.
The basic design of the stamps has much in common with the predecessor Americana series and the contemporaneous transportation coils; the few elements consisting only of portrait, name, possibly occupation/notability, inscription "USA", and denomination, in a single color on a white background.
The range of subjects was much broader than the previous Prominent Americans series or Liberty Issue. Where the predecessors focused mainly on political figures, the subjects of the Great Americans series were well-known from a number of diverse fields and ethnicities. Only two presidents were subjects of the series: Thomas Jefferson and Harry Truman. Balancing the diminished role of presidents was an enormous increase in the prominence of women. No fewer than fifteen appear among the Great Americans—a significant contrast to earlier definitive issues: for in the Prominent Americans series of 1965-78, females had appeared on only two denominations, while the definitives of 1902, 1922-25, 1938 and 1954-65 (the Liberty Issue) had each presented one, and only one, famous American woman.
Stamps of the series, ordered by denomination:
- 1¢ Dorothea Dix
- 1¢ Margaret Mitchell
- 2¢ Igor Stravinsky
- 2¢ Mary Lyon
- 3¢ Henry Clay
- 3¢ Paul Dudley White, M.D.
- 4¢ Carl Schurz
- 4¢ Father Flanagan
- 5¢ Pearl Buck
- 5¢ Hugo Black
- 5¢ Luis Muñoz Marín
- 6¢ Walter Lippmann
- 7¢ Abraham Baldwin
- 8¢ Henry Knox
- 9¢ Sylvanus Thayer
- 10¢ Richard Russell
- 10¢ Red Cloud
- 11¢ Alden Partridge
- 13¢ Crazy Horse
- 14¢ Sinclair Lewis
- 14¢ Julia Ward Howe
- 15¢ Buffalo Bill Cody
- 17¢ Rachel Carson
- 17¢ Belva Lockwood
- 18¢ George Mason
- 19¢ Sequoyah
- 20¢ Ralph Bunche
- 20¢ Thomas H. Gallaudet
- 20¢ Harry Truman
- 20¢ Virginia Apgar
- 21¢ Chester Carlson
- 22¢ John J. Audubon
- 23¢ Mary Cassatt
- 25¢ Jack London
- 28¢ Sitting Bull
- 29¢ Earl Warren
- 29¢ Thomas Jefferson
- 30¢ Frank C. Laubach
- 32¢ Milton Hershey
- 32¢ Cal Farley
- 32¢ Henry R. Luce
- 32¢ Lila & DeWitt Wallace
- 35¢ Charles Drew
- 35¢ Dennis Chavez
- 37¢ Robert Millikan
- 39¢ Grenville Clark
- 40¢ Claire Chennault
- 40¢ Lillian Gilbreth
- 45¢ Harvey Cushing, M.D.
- 46¢ Ruth Benedict
- 50¢ Chester W. Nimitz
- 52¢ Hubert Humphrey
- 55¢ Alice Hamilton, M.D.
- 55¢ Justin S. Morrill
- 56¢ John Harvard
- 65¢ H. H. "Hap" Arnold
- 75¢ Wendell Willkie
- 77¢ Mary Breckinridge
- 78¢ Alice Paul
- $1.00 Bernard Revel
- $1.00 Johns Hopkins
- $2.00 William Jennings Bryan
- $5.00 Bret Harte
[edit] Notes
- ^ Michael Baadke (December 27, 2010). "Great Americans, Still Great 30 Years Later". Linn's Stamp News: p. 3. http://editions.amospublishing.com/LINN/Default.aspx?d=20101227. Retrieved December 13, 2010.
[edit] External links
- Great Americans Issue (1980-1999) National Postal Museum
- American Plate Number Single Society Details of each stamp and further information regarding plate numbers.
