1851 Washington 12c Black

1851 Washington 12c
1851 Washington 12c

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
DesignerPrintingNumber
8/4/1851Joseph I. Pease(?)Toppan, Carpenter, Casilier & Co.2,500,000