United States Fourth Bureau Definitives - A Fascinating Group of US Stamps (Sometimes Called the "1922's")

We stumbled across this article which is chock full of interesting information on this beautiful series of United States definitive stamps, so we thought we'd pass it along to our readers.

Part I
by Michael Mills

The landscape of US stamps is a large one, ranging from dozens of locals and provisionals, a handful of territories and possessions and entities such as the Canal Zone and Hawaii, to the Confederate States of America, which had many of their own locals and provisionals, as well as pioneer airmail service, officials, revenues, and long-lived definitive series.

A newcomer to US philately might be overwhelmed by the topics and specialties, but if someone wanted to delve into the heart of the American philatelic landscape, there's one set of regular definitive postage that can be recommended for its philatelic significance, classic design, collecting possibilities, and affordable price tags. The USA's Fourth Bureau Series of definitives issued from 1922 through 1938 is an excellent entry into the realm of US stamps.

This is a ripe and rich area for collecting USA. In catalog terms, the Fourth Bureau runs from the flat plate, 1/2-cent to five dollar printings (SG# 559-613, 626-7), and the rotary press 1/2-cent to ten-cent issues (SG# 630 - 643), to a host of overprints, some of which are the "poor man's commemoratives" (SG# 649-51) and some security overprints (SG# 655-676): the "Kans." and "Nebr." overprints were designed to help curtail an outbreak of post office thefts in the rural plains states of Kansas and Nebraska. There are errors and specialties, such as the US-administered Canal Zone with its own series of Fourth Bureau overprints.

Throughout the Fourth Bureau there are perforation and color varieties, double transfers and plate errors, and adding to the fun are the numerous coils, with governmental as well as private perforations. Star Plates, experiments in cliche spacing, and various gum breakers also add variety to the series. If someone wanted to seek out higher philatelic ground, there are items such as the two-cent rotary President Harding issue, perf 11, one of which was hammered down at $35,000 in 2000. However, most issues are in the very affordable range, making the series a perfect philatelic entryway into the USA.

Technically, the series marks an era of modernization and innovation within the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, when production migrated from the plate plate press to the rotary press, as well as various experiments with stamp spacing, perforation, and gum.

The Fourth Bureau was also the first US issue to be collected on cover, postmarked on the first day of issue, when the first of the series, the eleven-cent Hayes stamp, was issued on 4 October 1922 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth in Fremont, Ohio. Spacing experiments and the Star Plates made plate block collecting popular, as larger, three millimeter horizontal spaces between stamps were used to try and to cut down on perforation errors and waste. Such plates were marked with stars in the margins, and resulted in some very rare plate blocks.

The Post Office

The Fourth Bureau debuted in October 1922 during the Republican administration of President Warren G. Harding, who took office in March 1921. The new Postmaster General Glover, an ardent stamp collector, set about retooling the Post Office that had apparently languished under the former administration of the ailing Democrat Woodrow Wilson.

Glover started the first philatelic sales windows at the Post Office, and whether or not the series was a replacement for the tired Washington-Franklin series that may or may not have confused postal clerks and letter carriers isn't known. After the series was released, Glover defended the Fourth Bureaus against charges of wasteful spending by saying thousands of postal customers and postmasters had asked the Post Office for more distinctive designs and colors.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing produced all of the series, and changes at the BEP more than likely brought about the new definitives. During the Great World War, the BEP printed the country's war bonds, but security was so lax that fraud and other abuses led to the "Liberty Bond Scandal." The staff was overworked, and the physical plant was aging fast just as the government was stepping up printing production to meet the needs of a growing industrial nation.