National Postal Museum Features Lincoln Plate Proofs

In celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, the Smithsonian is having a yearlong celebration, featuring exhibitions and events that will offer visitors a chance to explore the life and times of the nation’s 16th president.

Beginning later this month, the National Postal Museum’s Philatelic Gallery pullout frames will feature 11 certified plate proofs for postage stamps honoring the former postmaster of New Salem, Illinois.

Certified plate proofs are the last printed proof of the plate before printing the stamps. These plate proofs are each unique, with the approval signatures and date.

For postal scholars these plates provide important production information in the plate margin inscriptions, including guidelines, plate numbers, and initials of the siderographer, or person who created the plate from a transfer roll.

The stamps, issued from 1894 to 1959, feature a variety of Lincoln portraits.

To see proofs of the 1894 4-cent Abraham Lincoln definitive(SC 254), shown above, click here.

To learn more about essays and proofs, click here.