Everything about Trans-mississippi Issue totally explained
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The
Trans-Mississippi Issue, or "Trans-Miss" for short, is a set of nine
commemorative postage stamps issued by the
United States to mark the
1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition held in
Omaha, Nebraska. The finely-engraved stamps depict various scenes of the West and are today highly prized by collectors.
Edward Rosewater, then-publisher of the
Omaha Daily Bee and in charge of publicity for the Exposition, suggested the special stamps on
December 13,
1897, and 10 days later Postmaster-General
James A. Gary agreed. The announcement was met with protests from
stamp collectors, who were still unhappy about the high price of the
Columbian Issue of
1893 (over $15, a princely sum at the time), but Gary was unmoved, saying he decided on the issue "because I wanted to help the people of the West."
The original plan was to produce stamps with colored frames and black centers, but in April 1898 the
Spanish-American War broke out, and the
Bureau of Engraving and Printing was required to produce large numbers of
revenue stamps, so the designs were all single-color. They were also late, the first day on sale being
June 17, over two weeks after the Exposition opened.
Philatelic protests notwithstanding, they were received favorably by the general public. They went off sale at the end of the year, and postmasters were directed to return unsold stock, which was then incinerated. (Although the numbers printed are known, the numbers returned were not recorded, and so the numbers of existing stamps are unknown.)
The stamps themselves all have the same shape of frame (a legacy of the bicolor plan); the numerals of value and "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" at the top, and "POSTAGE" with a spelled-out value at the bottom. Ears of
wheat and
corn appear in odd corners of the frame. Each center design is inscribed with its title:
10¢ slate - "Hardships of Emigration"
50¢ olive - "Western Mining Prospector"
$1 black - "Western Cattle in Storm"
$2 orange brown - "Mississippi River Bridge"
The designs were adapted from various photographs, drawings, and paintings.
While all have been praised for their quality, the $1 value, commonly called the "Black Bull", stands out from the rest.
In 1998, to mark the 100th anniversary of the issue, the United States Postal Service issued a miniature sheet of the nine, each printed in the originally-intended two colors, and a sheet of nine of the "Black Bull". The designs are reproductions; they've a small "1998" worked into the frame.
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