About USA 60c Rickenbacker stamp
For few last nights I’ve been adding new items to my US stamp collection. While going through a pile of duplicates I noted that the 60c Eddie Rickenbacker (Aviation pioneer) stamp had clearly two different types. I quickly picked up my Michel stamp catalogue, and true. There was a statement this stamp exist in multiple types, and advice to see Michel USA SpezialKatalog for further details. Alas, I really dislike when general stamp catalogs tip off like this. Fortunately I have a copy of Scott Specialized catalog for US stamps and covers, and I was able to check the details from there. It turned out that I had spotted a well known variety.
1995 USA. Eddie Rickenbacker, aviation pioneer.
The original issue of this stamp was released in September 1995. The 60c rate fulfilled the overseas half-ounce airmail letter rate (as all mail sent to overseas addresses was sent via airmail, the stamp omitted the inscription “Air Mail”). In late 1999, USPS reprinted the stamp. These two can be distinguished by comparing the size of the year inscription in the lower-left corner of each stamp. In the original printing, the date is about 1.2mm wide; in the new printing it is about 1.7mm wide.
As I studied more about the stamps background, I learned another interesting tidbit… This is not a commemorative stamp as I would have thought from first look. This is a definitive stamp, released as spin-off to Great Americans stamp series. This detail would have escaped me fully if Michel catalog would not have classified this stamp as a “Freimarke” (German for definitive stamp).
This makes a lot of sense when you look at the cold facts instead of stamp appearance. Definitive stamps come with unspecific print runs ; they have long sales period and they are reprinted as required – all match this stamp. Commemorative stamps on the other hand always have limited print runs and sales period, and they are not reprinted – zero matches for this stamp.
BTW. Can anyone tell what the inscription on the selvage of re-issue is about? It seems like some sorts of commercial / ad.
Till next time, happy collecting!
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Good eye. It would be easy to miss that small difference in date size.
About the inscription Google says… The address is for the U.S. Postal Service National Customer Service Center (NCSC)
It is for a free USPS catalog (as if anyone would pay for it). I found an ebay image of the full sheet showing more of the text http://www.ebay.com/itm/2998-EDDIE-RICKENBACKER-FULL-MINT-SHEET-50-LOOK-/330505416703
They wanted $69.95 for this ?!? Is it that unusual an item??? At least they offered free shipping
@mrprgrmr… excellent. Thank you.
Actually mrpprgrmr…even if you want use for postage, is a lot more expensive than getting it from the post office!…LOL!
Well Keijo…I assume that you must have plenty of USA duplicates… how happen that you notice those differences just now?…I got lots of american definitives with the same peculiarity, hey,hey,hey…thinking on christmas already? LOL!
One more thing…the stamp is not an official ‘Air Mail’…USPS don’t catalogue it as such…of course, you can use for that purpose but I think is rather a commemorative issue to Eddie Rickenbacker, fighter pilot, OMHO….
@Fred…
Re, duplicates… These are mainly from “junk kiloware box” I had stashed in my stamp corner… Lots and lots of late 1990s small US definitives, very little anything else.
Also spotted an 1c American Kestrel with similar large & small inscription variety.
Re, commemorative vs. definitive vs. airmail… I agree that classifying stamps like this is confusing. Each catalog seems to have a slightly different view.
Spotting varieties is something I’d enjoy you writing some more articles about, just as you did for the Czechoslovakian heads from the 1920s. Specifically, I’d like to know which of the common world-wide definitive stamps have variations to look out for. It’s one way to squeeze some fun from a box full of kiloware.
@William… I think every stamp has got something for hawk-eyed collecter
Seriously.
Spotting varieties (and EFOs) is usually the easy part, one just have to have enough stamps to go through and compare. The real difficulty is finding out the “story behind” (why and when variety was born, is it a one time freak or something consistent etc). This usually takes a good bit of snoozing around for various tidbits… So the process behind my writings/notes is more or less multi-stepped. Sometimes they are pretty easy to create (like this one); sometimes they take a bit more effort and time (like the very long posts about Czechoslovakian heads, Hungarian castles, Trucial states etc).
As a guitar-playing stamp collector I wondered about the name. Sure enough, a quick look at Wikipedia reveals that Eddie was a cousin of Adolph Rickenbacker, the founder of Rickenbacker Guitars (as played by the Beatles, the Byrds, and many other great bands.) Apparently the company name was chosen because of Eddie’s fame.
Keep up the good work Keijo
@Steve Lyons… Wow, that tidbit I missed. Hmmm…. So basically this stamp would also fit into topical collection about history of Rock