The 1c blue from 1857 is a stamp that honors Benjamin Franklin.
According to an article published by the USPS, Franklin was known to spend a lot of time in his efforts to improve postal services.
In 1763, back in the colonies, Franklin began an extensive survey of post roads and Post Offices from Virginia to New England. Putting an odometer on the axle of his carriage, he personally measured distances between Post Offices, travelling approximately 1,600 miles.
With all of his other duties and interests, I wonder that he found time to travel all that distance. Even today, traveling 1600 miles by car takes a fair amount of time. Perhaps Franklin got other work done along the way as well.
Cataloging the 1857 Franklin 1c Blue
A Minimalist Catalog of 19th Century United States Stamps considers this the third stamp issued by the United States and thus gives it the number USC 3.
If you look further into the 1851 and 1857 stamps in the Minimalist Catalog (and on this site), you’ll note that the entire series is pared down to just eight stamps. The higher denominations are still quite expensive but much more manageable to acquire than when you use a different numbering system.
Other catalogs will assign as many as eight numbers to the 1851 imperforate variety and nine numbers to the 1857 perforated variety of this issue. One of the perforate stamps was invalid for postage.
The stats in the table below are for the stamp shown above.
| 1857 Benjamin Franklin 1c Blue Statistics | |||
| Date Used | Designer | Printing | Number |
| 11/17/1857 | Joseph I. Pease | Toppan, Carpenter, Casilier & Co. | ~50,000,000 |