1963 5c dark blue gray, tagged

U.S. #BK115
1963 5¢ Washington
Booklet

• Get a COMPLETE booklet of 20 1963 5¢ Washington stamps
• Booklets of #1213c booklet panes

Stamp Category:  Definitive
Value:  5¢
First Day of Issue:  October 28, 1963
First Day City:  Dayton, Ohio
Printed by:  Bureau of Engraving & Printing
Printing Method:&nbs...  more

U.S. #BK115
1963 5¢ Washington
Booklet

• Get a COMPLETE booklet of 20 1963 5¢ Washington stamps
• Booklets of #1213c booklet panes

Stamp Category:  Definitive
Value:  5¢
First Day of Issue:  October 28, 1963
First Day City:  Dayton, Ohio
Printed by:  Bureau of Engraving & Printing
Printing Method:  Rotary Press
Format:  4 panes of five stamps & one label per booklet
Perforations:  11 x 10.5
Color:  blue

Why the stamp was issued:  To pay the first-class postage rate of 5¢ that went into effect on January 7, 1963.

About the stamp design:  Designed by William Schrage, this stamp features a 1785 bust of Washington by Jean Antoine Houdon.

Special design details:  This stamp was issued in multiple formats with and without tagging, at a time when the Post Office was still experimenting with this technology.  Other formats include:

Untagged:  sheets (#1213), coils (#1229), and booklet panes (#1213a)

Tagged:  sheets (#1213b), coils (#1229a), and booklet panes (#1213c)

Full booklets are also available with different covers and slogans in the label: #BK110 and #BK112.

About “Tagged” Stamps:  By the late 1950s, mail volume in the US and around the world was constantly increasing. Many countries began to explore new ways to sort and postmark their stamps in quicker and more efficient ways.

Working with private sector companies such as Pitney Bowes, the US Post Office worked to develop machinery that could find the stamp and flip the envelope (a process known as “facing”) so the postmark would be placed in the right spot. In order to do this, the stamps needed to be able to be “seen” by the machine.

Soon planners discovered their answer – luminescence. This is a process in which stamps received an invisible coating that could only be seen under ultraviolet (UV) light. Under this light, the stamps would glow.

Using special machinery, stamps were overprinted with a special compound called a “taggant.” Invisible to the naked eye, the taggant made the stamps glow pinkish orange under the UV light. The machines were able to acknowledge the glow, flip the letters, and apply the cancels in quick order.

The Post Office continued to test tagging for several years on an increasingly larger scale.  After mid-1964, all airmail stamps were tagged. And after 1991, all definitive and commemorative US stamps were tagged, except pre-cancels and those under 8¢ face value. Tagged low-value stamps can trigger the facer-canceler, which can’t read face value and reject mail if postage is insufficient.

Older tagged stamps will have a reddish glow, while more modern ones will have a greenish glow. And in recent years, the USPS has gotten creative with its tagging, making certain elements of a stamp glow, rather than the entire stamp.

Unusual fact about this stamp:  Rare errors have been found imperforate between.

History the stamp represents:  The bust of George Washington featured on this stamp has appeared on numerous other US stamps over the years.  It was created by renowned sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon.

Born in France in 1741, Houdon befriended a number of American dignitaries living in Paris in the 1770s and 80s.  Among them were Benjamin Franklin, John Paul Jones, and Thomas Jefferson.  He sculpted each of these men and Jefferson encouraged him to go to America to sculpt George Washington. 

Houdon spent weeks in 1785 at Washington’s Mount Vernon home and studied him carefully.  On one occasion, Washington became angry about a horse trader’s prices and ordered the man off his property.  At that moment, Houdon found the expression of pride and strength that inspired a nation. 

Houdon set off to capture the expression in his sculpture.  The artist prepared a clay bust and a plaster life mask of Washington before returning to France to complete his work.  Houdon’s bust of Washington is regarded as the most accurate representation of George Washington’s face in existence.