US #1059Ad
1969 Paul Revere

Imperforate Error Pair - Tagged

• Imperforate stamp issued in error
• Tagging was an error
• Part of Liberty Series
  
  

Stamp Category:  Definitive
Set:  Liberty Series
Value:   25¢
First Day of Issue:  February 25, 1969
First Day City:  Wheaton, Maryland
Quantity Issued:  Unknown
Printed by:  Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Printing Method:  Rotary Press
Format:  Coil
Perforations:  Imperforate Error
Color : Green
Tagging: Tagged in error

Why the stamp was issued:  The Paul Revere stamp was originally issued as a sheet stamp.  This is the reissue in coil format.

About the stamp design: The image of Paul Revere is based on an 1813 painting by Gilbert Stuart.

Unusual fact about this stamp: The stamp was supposed to have vertical perforations measuring 10 gauge.  This error stamp was issued without perforations.

The stamp was also intended to be issued without tagging, but was mistakenly tagged.

About the Liberty Series:  The Liberty Series was first announced in late 1953 as a replacement for the popular Presidential Series (Prexies).  The new series began on April 9, 1954, with the 8¢ Statue of Liberty stamp (for which the series was named).

The Liberty Series was quite different from the Prexies.  It included “warm portraits” instead of “hard profile busts.”  It also used the works of many different artists and photographers.  Interestingly, former US presidents only made up a small portion of the stamp subjects (7 out of 25 denominations).  The rest recognized other guardians of freedom throughout US history. 

The Liberty Series was also produced with just 18 denominations as opposed to the 32 in the Presidential Series.  The Liberty Series included definitive stamps ranging from ½¢ to $5.  It was the last time the US produced a ½¢ stamp. 

During its run, the Liberty Series was part of a Bureau of Engraving and Printing experiment that began in 1954.  In previous “wet” printings, the paper had a moisture content of 15 to 35 percent.  In the experimental “dry” printings, the paper had a moisture content of 5 to 10 percent.  This process required stiffer, thicker paper, special inks, and greater pressure to force the paper through the plates.  Stamps produced by dry printing can be distinguished by whiter paper and higher surface sheen.  The stamps feel thicker and the designs are more pronounced than on wet printings.  The dry printing experiment was a success, and all US postage stamps have been printed this way since the late 1950s.

The Liberty Series ran from 1954-61 and was replaced by the Prominent Americans Series in 1965.  However, the 2¢ and 25¢ coil stamps were reprinted many times and sold well into the 1980s.

Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride 

On April 18, 1775, Paul Revere took his historic ride to warn the people of Lexington and Concord that the British were coming.  It’s one of the most famous tales from the Revolutionary War, popularized and romanticized in a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Born in Boston, Paul Revere was a leader in the patriot group known as The Sons of Liberty, whose members participated in the Boston Tea Party.  In 1774, he was hired by the Boston committee of Correspondence and the Massachusetts Committee of Safety to work as an express rider.  In that role, he carried news, messages, and copies of resolutions to and from New York and Philadelphia.

In the spring of 1775, British Army soldiers were stationed in Boston, where their numbers had grown since the Boston Tea Party.  The British planned to disarm the residents of the Massachusetts colony and imprison its leaders.

Wanted by the British for their role in the independence movement, Samuel Adams and John Hancock fled to Lexington, where they stayed with Hancock’s relatives.  Revere was then called to meet with Dr. Joseph Warren, who asked him to ride to Lexington to warn Hancock and Adams that the British were coming to arrest them.

The weekend before his planned ride, Revere spoke with fellow members of the Sons of Liberty, and they arranged a lantern signal using the belltower of North Church to warn of the British approach.  The signal would be sent by lighting one lantern if they planned to march by land or two if they rowed “by sea” across the Charles River to Cambridge.

On the evening of April 18, Revere traveled to the North Church to have the patriots stationed there light two lanterns to alert Charlestown that the British would arrive by sea.  Two associates then rowed Revere across the Charles River.  Once across, he borrowed a horse and set out on his ride.  Along the way to Lexington, he stopped at each house that he passed to warn them that the British were coming.

Revere reached Lexington around midnight and approached the house where Adams and Hancock were staying.  The man guarding the house told him he made too much noise, but Revere replied, “Noise! You’ll have noise enough before long.  The regulars are coming out!”  He then went inside and warned Adams and Hancock.

With that part of his mission complete, Revere prepared to continue on to Concord, where a large cache of weapons and supplies were hidden.  Before leaving town, he met William Dawes, another rider who’d received the same mission but left from a different town.  They were also joined by a third rider, Dr. Samuel Prescott.  However, the three men were caught by a British patrol shortly after joining up, jeopardizing their mission to warn the people of Concord.

Prescott and Dawes both escaped shortly after being taken, but Revere was held for much longer.  After he was released, he had to walk back to Lexington, where he witnessed part of the battle on the Lexington Green.  Along the way, he also helped Adams and Hancock, who were on their way to Woburn, Massachusetts.  In the end, only Prescott made it to Concord in time to warn the militia of the British approach.