This stamp honors Benjamin Franklin. The portrait design is the same as that on the 1 cent blue only reversed.
There isn’t a lot to say about this orange stamp other than that it was created to cover the costs of higher postal rates especially for overseas mail and long distance mail carried by the railroads.
I don’t own a copy of this stamp yet. It is here courtesy of the Wikimedia Commons.
Cataloging the 1860 Franklin 30 Cent
This is one of a few early stamps that is only listed twice in the major catalogs, one of them being the special printing that was invalid for postal use. The Minimalist Catalog simply identifies the Franklin 30 cent as number 9.
| Benjamin Franklin 30c Statistics | |||
| Date Used | Designer | Printing | Number |
| 8/8/1860 | n/a | Toppan, Carpenter, Casilier & Co. | 356,000 |