United States Stamp - Pilgrim Tercentenary Stamp - Landing of the Pilgrims - 1620-1920 - Issued December 21, 1920

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United States Stamp - Pilgrim Tercentenary Stamp - Landing of the Pilgrims - 1620-1920 - Issued December 21, 1920

Engraved postage stamp

Vessel: Pilgrim Shallop - Shallop

Title: Pilgrim Tercentenary 1620-1920 – Landing of the Pilgrims
Scott Cat. Number: 549
Subject: Pilgrim Landing 1620
Media: Flat plate engraving
Designer: Huston - Clair Aubrey Huston (1857-1938)
Design Inspiration - art: White – Edwin White (1817-1877)
Design Inspiration – engraving: Burt – Charles Kennedy Burt (1823-1892)
Vignette Engraver: Smillie – George Frederick Cumming Smillie (1854-1924)
Letter Engraver: Edward Mitchell Weeks (1866-1959)
Frame Engraver: Louis Sartain Schofield (1868-1938)
Printer: United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Color: Carmine Rose
Size: 1” x 1.25”
Country: United States
Postage Value: 2 cents
Issue Series: 2nd in the Pilgrim Tercentennial Series.
Issue Origin: The Pilgrim Tercentennial was a national celebration from December 1920 to the summer of 1921.
Issue Date: December 21, 1920
Issue Location: Plymouth, Massachusetts
Issue Size: 196,037,327

See Also: "The Engraver’s Line: An Encyclopedia of Paper Money & Postage Stamp Art" by Gene Hessler, BNR Press, Port Clinton, Ohio, 1993.

Page 4 and 5 explain the production steps taken to turn original art into an engraved postage stamp. Worth reading as the engraver works from the beginning on a plate of about 3.5” x 4,” engraving a stamp at its finished size. Engraving is used for very few stamps today and, when one reads about the process, one can understand why. The author even provides particular engraver’s recipes for the acid they used, including that of James Smillie, the famous landscape engraver. Smillie - James Smillie (1807-1885)

United States Postal Service

Plymouth MA

MA

USA

1920