Some of the most popular United States stamps are the Airmail issues. These stamps were issued to pay the increased fee on letters sent by airmail. The first airmail flight (by airplane rather than balloon) took place in September 1911, and was a private flight carrying little mail and covering but a few miles. In 1918, a new set of stamps were issued for airmail service. The six-cent stamp is in an orange shade that often reacts, in spots or in whole, with sulfur in the air to have a deep red brown toning. Unlike coins, toned stamps are considered quite unappealing. Fortunately, soaking the sulfurized examples in hydrogen peroxide can quickly restore the original color by unfixing the sulfur in the stamp. This solution does not work so well for mint stamps, though. Gum is soluble in hydrogen peroxide. Often, it is possible to paint the sulfurized portions of the stamps with the peroxide from a small brush. This is a time-consuming process, but it usually works wonders.
The six-cent orange, like all of the first two Airmail issues, is a difficult stamp to find in well-centered condition, and substantial premiums are paid for perfectly centered, never hinged copies. The stamp is not rare; over 3 million copies were sold.
The sixteen-cent stamp was printed in green. Like the six-cent stamp, 3 million copies were printed. As a general rule, more attention is paid to condition on scarce stamps than it is on rare ones. All of the Airmails sell for large discounts from catalogue value if in damaged or slightly damaged condition. Generally, however, the rarer a stamp is, the smaller the difference between perfect and imperfect price. This is because a truly rare stamp is snatched up by collectors whenever it is offered. A much larger supply of the early issue Airmails exists than there is demand. So collectors have a greater degree of choice in the copies they wish to buy, and many gravitate through choice (or because they are advised to do so) toward higher-quality stamps. Perfect, mint, large margin, never hinged Airmails have sold for as much as $1,000, whereas off-center mint stamps with a thin can sell for as little as $75.
The twenty-four-cent stamp is printed in two colors, the blue center bearing a picture of the airplane Curtiss Jenney, surrounded by a bright carmine frame. The stamp is of particularly pleasing appearance, and is probably one of the most famous American stamps for the simple reason that through an unfortunate error, one sheet came out with the center inverted. A plane flying upside down is a spectacular error, and an example of this stamp with the center inverted can sell for as much as $130,000. (The history of the discovery of this error is related in Chapter 8.)
All of the 1918 Airmail stamps were issued in sheets of 100 with 19 straight edges on two sides (one stamp being a double straight edge). But from the number of stamps currently offered with straight edges, rather than this condition being quite common, you would think straight edges were a rarity. This is because so many of the straight-edged copies have been reperforated over the years. Many are identified as such when sold, but a lot of other times they are not. Simply insisting on large margins is not enough. Many of the straight-edged sides were large enough to permit reperfing, with plenty of room left over. (The basic skills in determining a reperforated stamp are described on page 68.) Other than saying that a collector or investor would be wise to buy from an expert, wisdom would suggest that he or she should insist on guarantees and void bargains. For years a man who was known to be a reperfer and regummer (since he only bought straight edged and no gum stamps from dealers, and only advertised to sell perfect ones) advertised his perfect wars at 30 percent below the prices for which nearly every well-established reputable merchant was selling the same stamps. A bargain can be a bad one! If a dealer’s prices are cheap, he may well be on the level; but prudence would suggest checking him out. By the same token, don’t be convinced that high prices mean high business ethics.
The 1923 Airmail issue is just as scarce as the first issue. It has three stamps, an eight cent, sixteen cent, and twenty-four cent, and was in use for approximately three years. With all the attention that has been paid to mint stamps the last several years, collectors have been ignoring the real scarcity of attractive used Airmail stamps. Recently, used Airmails have begun moving in price, but they are still far underpriced. First of all, used early Airmails are about as scarce as unused, for the use of airmail service was limited, and many stamps were bought to be kept mint as souvenirs. Secondly, due to the rough handling of the envelopes aboard the early planes, many of the envelopes have bent corners, which creased the stamp. Set prices for perfect examples can run quite high.
The Map set of 1926 was issued to pay the new rate structure put into effect when Congress decided to contract out the airmail service. Before this, government-operated planes flew the mail; but Congress decided to promote the fledgling domestic airline business by contracting with commercial carriers to take the mail, thus giving them assured business on which they could borrow money for expansion. Rates were lowered and this new set was issued. Over 15 million sets were sold. Keep in mind that Airmails are extremely popular. The main reason for this is that less than 100 different Airmail stamps were issued, as opposed to about 2,000 regularly issued ones, and with a few exceptions even a collector of moderate means can get most of them. This set, like most of the Airmails, has shot up in price in the last few years.
Those who did not live through it have no way of comprehending the excitement and exhilaration generated when Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic. The Post Office Department responded by issuing a stamp that was its first to honor a living person. It has always been government policy never to picture a living person on a stamp; no doubt this grew as a reaction to early European stamp makers, who put their monarch’s portrait on every postage stamp. Americans were quite antimonarchist. Within a few decades of the first American stamp, it because the policy of the United States government not to commemorate living persons, though some living people have been placed on commemoratives accidently as part of a picture of something else. The man driving the car on the four-cent Pan American is an example of this; he has little importance to the design, but he was alive when the stamp was issued.
Lindbergh was being commemorated on this stamp, but the Post Office Department could not bring itself to picture the pilot, so his plane The Spirit of St. Louis was shown. Although over 20 million stamps were issued, because of the stamp’s popularity with the general population, the number in philatelic hands is far smaller than that.
The most fascinating United States Airmail stamps were not issued for airplane use at all. Since 1928, a number of zeppelin companies had operated transoceanic crossings between the United States and the rest of the world. The three stamps issued on April 19, 1930, are among the most popular stamps ever issued. They are far from rare. Over 61,000 sets were issued, but because of the high face value of the set ($4.55) and the timing of the issue coinciding with the beginning of the Great Depression, a large number of sets were unsold. The amount estimated to be in collectors’ hands is about 20,000 sets– still quite a few when you consider that their selling price is in the $4,000 to $7,500 range. But from its first issue, this set was popular; the price began rising quickly after it was taken off sale, and it has moved upward steadily over the last fifty years. For the budget-minded, a fifty-cent version of the stamp was issued in 1933 for another zeppelin flight, and trades for about $400.
There are more Airmails and there are Special Delivery stamps and Revenues, and local issues, and a whole world of United States stamps that space does not allow us to discuss here. In fact, the Regular Commemorative and Airmail issues just described take up only 25 percent of Scott’s United States Stamp Catalogue Specialized, so there is much, much more. And every stamp has its story, and its collectors. This discussion has attempted to portray some of the more interesting United States stamps. But remember, every stamp is as worthy of being collected as any other; to say otherwise is not philately.