Robert E. Lee on U.S. Postage Stamps

John Hartwell

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The government against which he fought has honored Robert E. Lee on at least five postage stamps.
The first is part of the 1936-37 Army/Navy series of commemorative stamps. Leading Military and Naval figures of conflicts from the Revolutionary War to the Spanish American War, including men from both sides of the Civil War were included.
The 4 cent denomination pictures both Lee and Stonewall Jackson, as well as Lee's birthplace, Stratford Hall Plantation.
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Other stamps in the Army series were: 1 cent, Washington and Greene; 2 cent, Jackson and Scott; 3 cent, Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan; 5 cent, U.S. Military Accademy
 
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Poor Robert E Lee, bad enough he had to suffer being licked once, then the gosh durn yankee's make it so he got licked on a daily basis!

:cry: :D
Isn't it typical! How mean and vindictive those Yankees are!
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PS: there's another 'art' doomed to extinction! Future generations of Americans will never have the experience of licking a postage stamp. They're all self-adhesive now.
 
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This is a timely thread. I was at the Post Office earlier this week and having put a book down on the counter, the woman taking care of me announced she had Civil War stamps available and would I be interested?

Sure, I said. She sold me a commemorative sheet of stamps that depict Petersburg and the Battle of Mobile Bay, including the sinking of USS Tecumseh. I told her thank you and she pointed at my book on the counter. "I thought you'd be interested," she said. It was Trudeau's Southern Storm, with Sherman's picture on the cover, but upside down from her vantage point. I was impressed!

The stamps are pretty cool if you ask me. I'd buy a sheet with Lee or anyone from the period.
 
While this thread is principally about U.S. postage stamps, Gen. Lee has appeared, also, on a number of stamps from other countries, usually on stamps marking the ACW. Here are a few
St. Kitts (2001):
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Republic of Mali (2011):
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And, in some lesser company, on Mali's 2012 commemoration of the Battle of Antietam:
lee10.jpg
I think it's remarkable that no one over here seems to have noticed Bragg's presence at Antietam -- but it didn't slip past the Mali Postal Service!
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Speaking of Lee getting licked on stamps, I bet many don't know that our fellow forum member, @Scott Mingus, was instrumental in inventing the self-adhesive postage stamp.

Thereby depriving future generations the experience of trying to get that awful taste out of their mouth after licking a stamp!

:giggle:
 
Some of these issues are really rather puzzling.
Why would the West African Republic of Guinea issue a series of stamps and souvenir sheets for each and every American President? Because it was anticipated that collectors from around the world would rush to buy them. So, they were often not at all concerned with the accuracy of their depictions.Most of these countries are very poor, and big flashy postage stamps are among their principal money-making exports. In fact, most of these stamps were never used for actual postage, and many never even saw the country that issued them. Serious philatelists, therefore, usually spurn them because they were not issued for genuine postal purposes. They are merely purposely-manufactured "collectibles." As such, they will never much increase in value with age.

The Guinean stamp honoring President Zachary Taylor, for instance, includes a picture of Robert E. Lee. The reasoning, I suppose, was that Lee, like Taylor served in the Mexican War, besides being distantly related (3rd cousins, once removed).
So, there is the full-length portrait of Lee in his Confederate General's uniform, as a tribute to Old Rough and Ready.
lee13 - Edited.jpg

 
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Speaking of Lee getting licked on stamps, I bet many don't know that our fellow forum member, @Scott Mingus, was instrumental in inventing the self-adhesive postage stamp.


No way! Such a fan of " Flames Beyond Gettysburg ". My copy once again being carried around in the bag- it's like the best " Did You Know? " reference ever on Central PA and Lee's invasion. You don't have to be from around here to find it hugely interesting though. Gettysburg for the highly distractible, talks about the veritable shock waves hitting the area when a massive army moved in. ( That's not for you, Cash, have a feeling your copy was purchased the day after release )
 
Love all these postage stamps. Thanks for posting. I must go to post office and get ones I can. Otherwise I imagine available through stamp dealers.
Except for rare, expensive ones, eBay is the easiest and cheapest place to buy collector's stamps these days -- or maybe some online dealer. It would be hard to find any of these at a Post Office today. They're not often available there more than six months after they were issued. I think any of the U.S. stamps in this thread can be had for under $2 -- several for half that.

Any unused U.S. stamp issued after 1860, however, can lawfully be used for postage today. No American stamps have been withdrawn since May 1861 -- when Postmaster General Montgomery Blair banned the use of all stamps issued before that dare -- to make sure those in rebel Post Offices couldn't be used. He then issued that rather bland 3 cent Washington we find on so many ACW-era letters:
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So, if you put stamps from the 1860s totaling 49 cents on an envelope today, you can drop it off at the P.O., and it will be delivered (of course those stamps might well have a collector's value of several hundred dollars unused ... but, what the hey!)
 
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