Stamps

Commemorative Postage Stamps of 1933
Flat Plate - Perforated 11 - 400 Subject Plates

Georgia Bicentennial - General Oglethorpe
FDC: Feb. 12, 1933
61,719,200 issued

Polish American Issue - General Kosciuszko
FDC: Oct. 13, 1933
45,137,700 issued

Flat Plate - Perforated 11 - 200 Subject Plates

"Little America" - Admiral Byrd Antarctic Expedition
FDC: Oct. 9, 1933
5,735,944 issued
· see The Farley's for Varieties of this Stamp

Rotary Press - Perf 10½ x 11 - 400 Subject Plates

Proclamation of Peace - Hasbrouck House
Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh, N.Y.
FDC: Apr. 19, 1933
73,382,400 issued

Chicago Century of Progress
Restoration of Fort Dearborn
FDC: May 25, 1933
348,266,800 issued

Chicago Century of Progress
Federal Building
FDC: May 25, 1933
480,239,300 issued

The National Recovery Act
The NRA
FDC: Aug. 15, 1933
1,978,707,300 issued

The 3¢ Georgia Bicentennial Postage Stamp
Flat Plate - Perf 11 - 400 Subject Plates - FDC: Feb. 12, 1933 - 61,719,200 issued

As with the William Penn commemorative stamp of a year earlier, the General Oglethorpe stamp honored a "social experiment", a settlement with humanitarian goals in principal at least, to provide a new home for the disenfranchised in England's crowded debtors prisons. In practice, Oglethorpe's settlement was more a deliberate attempt to establish a dividing line between the British and Spanish occupation of North America.

Oglethorpe landed in what is now Savannah, Georgia on February 12, 1733. As William Penn had done in his vision of the city of Philadelphia, Oglethorpe instituted a master plan for the city of Savannah, establishing an ingenious grid of squares, each surrounded by businesses, houses and churches, each a mini-community within the larger city. Today these "squares", each with its own personality, give Savannah its unique charm.

In a preemptive move, Oglethorpe built a military stronghold about sixty miles south of Savannah, at Fort Frederica. Attempts by the Spanish to unseat the English colonists were so unsuccessful that it is believed to have signaled the end of Spanish expansion north of Florida.

First Day sales in Savannah, Georgia were on the 200th anniversary of Oglethorpe's landing, February 12, 1933and a day later in Washington, D.C.

The 3¢ Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh, New York Postage Stamp
Rotary Press - Perf 10½ x11 - 400 Subjects - FDC: Apr. 19, 1933 - 73,382,400 issued

This stamp was the first issued under the administration of President Roosevelt, which began on March 4, 1933. Roosevelt was the first serious philatelist to become president and of course became involved with the issuance of stamps almost immediately upon taking office.

In what, at the time, must have seemed like a promotional event, Roosevelt ordered the presses stopped and bought one of the sheets of 400, something that certainly would seem to be a real shot in the arm for U.S. stamp collecting. What the Postmaster did not realize was that to philatelists this sheet, having not passed through the normal gumming and perforation stages of stamp production, was a very different animal than the normal gummed and perforated issues. There is some controversy regarding whether Roosevelt realized this distinction at the time. In retrospect it is hard to believe that a stamp collector would not realize the value of an exceptionally rare imperforate stamp, since in this case only Roosevelt's sheet existed.

The controversy surrounding this practice ultimately led to the issuance of special imperforate sheets in an effort to insure that any collector could obtain an identical sheet to the one which Roosevelt and a few selected others had received. These stamps came to be known as "Farley's Follies". See The Farley's for more on this subject.

The Air Mail Stamp of 1933
Flat Plate - Perforated 11 - 200 Subject Plates

"A Century of Progress Flight"
The Baby Zeppelin
FDC: Oct. 2, 1933
324,700 issued

The following postage stamp varieties were first issued by the U.S. in 1933
There were no new varieties of the ordinary stamps issued in 1933.

Commemoratives
Number 726 - 3¢ Georgia Bicentennial Issue - Designer: C. Aubrey Huston - Engraver: J. Eissler
Number 727 - 3¢ Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh, NY - Designer: A. R. Meissner - Engravers: L. S. Schofield (vignette) · E.M. Hall & W. B. Wells (lettering)
Number 728 - 1¢ Chicago Century of Progress - Restoration of Fort Dearborn - Designer: V. S. McCloskey, Jr. - Engravers: L. Schofield (vignette) & W. Wells (lettering)
Number 729 - 3¢ Chicago Century of Progress - Federal Building in Chicago - Designer: Victor S. McCloskey, Jr. - Engraver: J. Eissler (vignette) & E. M. Hall (lettering)
Number 730 - 1¢ APS Sheet of 25 (see Number 728) - Issued without Gum - See also: Number 766 (illustrated)
Number 730a - Single from the above sheet of 25
Number 731 - 3¢ APS Sheet of 25 (see Number 729) - Issued without Gum - See also: Number 767
Number 731a - Single from the above sheet of 25
Number 732 - 3¢ National Recovery Act - NRA Issue - Designer: V. S. McCloskey, Jr. Engravers: L. Schofield (vignette) & W. Wells (lettering)
Number 733 - 3¢ Byrd Antarctic Issue - Designer: V. S. McCloskey, Jr. Engravers: J. C. Benzing (vignette) & W. Wells & Frank Lamasure(lettering)
Number 734 - 5¢ General Kosciuszko - Designer: V. S. McCloskey, Jr. Engravers: J. C. Benzing (vignette) & E. M. Hall (lettering)

"Lettering" refers to both the lettering and the numerals and, where applicable, the frame. Each engraver was assigned a portion of the stamp which utilized his particular area of expertise. This typically meant the senior engravers were assigned the task of engraving the portrait or vignette and the less senior engravers the task of engraving the numerals, lettering and frame.

Air Mail
Number C18 - The 50¢ "Baby" Zeppelin - Flat Plate Perf 11

Special Delivery
There were no new Special Delivery stamps issued in 1933.
Postage Dues: The Postage Due Stamps of 1931 to 1933
Rotary Press - Perf 11 x 10½
Number J79 - The ½¢ Dull Carmine - January 19, 1933

Suggested reading
Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Stamps of the United States 1933-1945 - by Brian C. Baur (1993 Linn's Stamp News)

The United States Postage Stamps of the Twentieth Century Volume II: Commemoratives 1923-1933 - by Max Johl (1934 H. L. Lindquist publisher)

The United States Postage Stamps of the Twentieth Century Volume III: 1922-1935 Parcel Post & Air Mails - by Max Johl (1935 H. L. Lindquist publisher)