Ben Franklin on stamps

Four 39-cent stamps depicting Benjamin Franklin’s accomplishments as a printer, statesman, scientist and postmaster and will be released today.

Art director, designer and typographer, Richard Sheaff used historical elements from Franklin’s life to create the stamp collages shown above.

Design elements in the Postmaster stamp include: a graphic device used by the Boston Post-Boy newspaper; a 1775 colonial postal cover and dated postmark from Marlboro, MD; an 18th-century painting by Charles Wilson Peale after a portrait by David Martin. A reference at the bottom of the stamp refers to Franklin’s personal franking signature, “B. Free Franklin, Postmaster.”

Benjamin Franklin holds the unique distinction of being second only to George Washington as the most popular subject to be commemorated on U.S. postage stamps with over one-hundred stamps issued with his likeness on them since 1847.

Shown below is a picture of Ben Franklin composed of about 1800 stamps. For a closer look at the section over his right eye, click here.

For more on Benjamin Franklin and stamps, click here.