Lincoln on Postage Stamps

John Hartwell

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Abraham Lincoln is second only to George Washington for the number of time he has appeared on U. S. postage stamps. He is by far the single most pictured American on postage stamps world wide. In this thread, I am going to post pictures from a variety of those literally hundreds of stamps appearing over the past 150 years.

First, from the first 100 years of Regular Issue (non-commemorative) Lincoln stamps from the United States:
1866
1866.jpg
1869
rsz_189x.jpg
(most valuable, at $4000)
1882
rsz_1882.jpg
This is a darker reissue of a pale pink 1870 stamp.
1890
rsz_1890.jpg
1902
rsz_1903.jpg

1922
rsz_1922.jpg
1938
rsz_1938.jpg

1954
rsz_1954 (1).jpg
1966
1966.jpg
 
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Internationally, scores of countries have produced Lincoln commemorative stamps. Some of them have rather peculiar appearance.
Last year, the Solomon Islands marked the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's death, with a stamp and souvenir sheet clearly picturing Daniel Day Lewis:
solomons - Edited.jpg

with Cuba Gooding jr and Denzel Washington (from Glory) in the background for good measure. No question of where they get their American history!
Such issues as this are generally produced just for collectors, and few if any are actually used postally.
 
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The 1959 Lincoln Sesquicentennial was the first big occasion for worldwide celebration of our 16th president.
The Honduras issued a six-stamp set for the occasion:
honduras - Edited.jpg


And, Liberia had it's own special reason for honoring Lincoln. It was at his behest that the U.S. became the first country to diplomatically recognize Liberian independence.
liberia59.png
 
The first foreign stamps to honor Abraham Lincoln came from the world's oldest Constitutional Republic, having maintained its independence since the 11th century. The tiny Republic of San Marino had extended to Lincoln honorary citizenship on March 29, 1861. He had graciously accepted the honor, noting "Although your domain is small, your State is one of the most honored in all history." The occasion of the stamps was the July 4, 1937, dedication there of a bust of Lincoln.
smarino37.jpg
 
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Two Presidents.
In 1942, the US saluted China's wartime struggles with this stamp picturing Lincoln and Dr Sun Yat Sen:
rsz_sun1942.jpg
Seventeen years later, the same two appeared on a stamp of the republic of China (Taiwan):
sun21959.jpg
Dr. Sun, like so many 20th century leaders, was a great admirer of Abraham Lincoln.
As was Kwame Nkrumah, first president of Ghana, pictured in a set of 3 stamps standing before the statue of the seated president in the Lincoln Memorial:
ghana59.jpg
Ghana, it should be noted, is located on the "Slave Coast" of West Africa, and one of the regions from which a great many captives were transported to the New World.
Around the time of the assassination of President Kennedy, we see a number of stamps bearing both his image and that of Abraham Lincoln: men whose fates and philosophies were linked in popular perception.
aden1967.jpg
1963, from the Kathiri State (Aden).
And, 1965, from Liberia:
liberia65.png
 
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An interesting set of five stamps from the Pacific island of Palau derived from Carpenter's famous painting of the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation. The individual stamps are perhaps less than fortunate designs. (A 60 cent stamp with Edward Bates in the bottom corner???)
eppalau.png

I seriously doubt that any of these were ever actually used as postage.
 
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Great looking stamps. I'm guessing that beside Lincoln, the other American president most honored by foreign postage stamps is JFK.
 
The West African state of Guinea-Bissau issued two souvenir sheets last year, which include a startling blend of imagery -- clearly chosen for aesthetic reasons, without reference to any kind of logic.
s-l1600 (2).jpg
s-l1600 (3).jpg

Note particularly that the stamp on the bottom right features a background image from the Revolutionary War!
 
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