This stamp honors George Washington. The design has a quality of completeness about it that seems lacking in some of the other early issues. Perhaps it’s the quilt-like border that gives it this quality. The black color may contribute to it as well.
It remains a bit of a mystery as to why a stamp worth 12 cents was created in 1851, since there was no postal rate that corresponded to it.
I don’t own a copy of this stamp yet. It is here courtesy of the Wikimedia Commons.
Cataloging the Washington 12 Cent
Other catalogs note only a handful of major variants of the Washington 12 cent, but the Minimalist Catalog reduces even these perforate and imperforate stamps to just one item, number 7.
| George Washington 12c Statistics | |||
| Date Used | Designer | Printing | Number |
| 8/4/1851 | Joseph I. Pease(?) | Toppan, Carpenter, Casilier & Co. | 2,500,000 |