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The Columbian Issue, often simply called the Columbians, is a set of 16 postage stamps issued by the United States to mark the 1893 World Columbian Exposition held in Chicago. The finely-engraved stamps were the first commemorative stamps issued by the United States, depicting various events during the career of Christopher Columbus and are today highly prized by collectors. ==History== The Columbian stamps were supplied by the American Banknote Company, which held a four-year contract for the production of United States postage stamps beginning on December 1, 1889. However, where previous contracts had required printing firms to provide designs and plates at their own expense for any new stamps required by the Post Office, the 1889 contract specified that the Post Office would bear those costs.〔, p. 23〕 Indeed, Postmaster John Wanamaker (he of department store fame) executed a new contract with American specifically for the Columbian stamps without going through any competitive bidding process, which allowed the firm to charge 17¢ per thousand stamps, in contrast to the 7.45¢ per thousand it had been collecting for stamps of the 1890 definitive series. This arrangement prompted considerable public criticism—not allayed by American’s argument that the Columbians’ size (double that of normal stamps) warranted a higher price—and Wilson Bissel, who became Postmaster General after Grover Cleveland reassumed the Presidency in March 1893, attempted to renegotiate the stamp contract on terms more favorable to the Post Office.〔 ''The New York Times'', October 3, 1893.〕 Fifteen of the stamps went on sale Monday, January 2, 1893. They were available nationwide, and were not restricted to the Exposition in any way. This was a larger number of stamps than the United States Post Office had ever offered in a definitive series, thanks to the unprecedented inclusion of stamps denominated $1, $2, $3, $4 and $5: no U. S. postage stamp previously issued had cost more than 90¢. A sixteenth stamp—8 cents, to cover the newly lowered registered letter fee—was added in March. As a result, the face value of the complete set was $16.34, a substantial sum of money in 1893. In approximate 2009 dollars,〔()〕 the set would cost almost $390. As a result, only a small number of the most expensive stamps, especially the dollar values, were sold. Unsold stamps were destroyed after the Columbian Issue was removed from sale on April 12, 1894. In all, the American Banknote Company printed more than 2 billion Columbian stamps with a total face value exceeding $40 million. Opinion regarding the Columbian Issue at the time was mixed. The set sold well and did not face the sort of criticism that led to the withdrawal of the 1869 Pictorial Issue. However, approval was not universal. An organization called the Society for the Suppression of Speculative Stamps (sometimes called the Society for the Suppression of Spurious Stamps) was created in protest over the creation of this set, deeming the Exposition in Chicago insufficiently important to be honored on postage, while some collectors balked at the Post Office Department's willingness to profit from the growing hobby of philately. Ridiculing the $5 stamp, the Chicago Tribune pointed out that it could be used for only one purpose: mailing a 62½-pound package of books at the book rate.〔()〕 The Columbians did not immediately increase in value after being removed from sale, in part due to substantial speculation resulting in a glut of stamps on the secondary market. However, , depending on condition, a full set might be valued at $100,000 or more.〔Dead Link: See markup. 〕 It was not only in design and commemorative purpose that this issue proved a watershed in U. S. stamp history. The Columbians, like all previous U. S. stamps, had been produced by private security printers on limited-term contracts periodically put out for bidding. They proved, however, to be the last U. S. stamps printed by a private company for many years. For in early 1894, the American Bank Note Company failed to secure a renewal of its stamp contract because the U. S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing submitted a lower bid; and the Bureau went on to enjoy a monopoly on U. S. stamp production for many decades thereafter. Not until 1944 would a private company again produce U. S. stamps (the Overrun Countries series, which required special multicolor printing) and the Bureau subsequently resumed its exclusive role in production, only gradually relinquishing it over the next sixty years (U. S. stamp operations at the Bureau ceased entirely in 2005). Scholars believe that the Bureau's first task in 1894 was to finish some Columbian sheets printed by American; what makes this theory plausible is that, while many Columbian stamps are perfectly perforated, others are distinctly substandard in this regard, with partially punched chads and/or holes that are missing, ragged or misplaced--flaws that would also mar the stamps of the first Bureau definitive issue, released later in 1894.〔''The World’s Fair Collection: 1893 Columbian Issue'', Sale 1055, Siegel Auction Galleries, Inc., 2013.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Columbian Issue」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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