This stamp honors George Washington.
This lovely green stamp is one of four dedicated to Washington in this Civil War era series.
The other three are the 3-cent rose, the 12-cent black, and the 24-cent red lilac values.
The inspiration for this design was the (unfinished) Gilbert Stuart portrait of 1796 known as The Athenaeum. It’s the same portrait used to design the United States one-dollar bill.
Cataloging the 1861 Washington 10c
Other catalogs list up to five varieties of the Washington 10c, mostly based on whether or not it has a grill and, if it does, the size of the grill.
Throughout this series, there is a variety that mainly differs from the original in that it was printed on “whiter paper”. It’s rather difficult to determine whether you have the original or the one on whiter paper without having both of them in front of you.
The Minimalist Catalog dismisses all these types and difficulties by assigning just one listing to this stamp, calling it USC 15.
| George Washington 10c Statistics | |||
| Date Used | Designer | Printing | Number |
| 8/20/1861 | James Macdonough | National Bank Note Company | 27,300,000 |