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STATISTICS
Issued: The 5¢ was officially issued on January, 1st 1893, a Sunday, and at Post Offices the following day. There are a couple of examples postmarked in New York, N.Y., on January 1st, 1893.
Plate Size: Sheets of 100 subjects (2 panes of 50).
Printer: The American Bank Note Company.
Watermark: None.
Quantity Issued: 35,248,250.
Color: Chocolate, pale brown, dark chocolate of yellow brown.
Common use: The stamp paid the Universal Postal Union half-ounce international rate.
THE INSPIRATION FOR THE DESIGN
The design was created by Alfred S. Major. The frame was engraved by Douglas P. Ronaldson, the image is from a painting by the Czech painter Václav Brožík. The engraving of the vignette was created by Charles Skinner. The painting was created in 1884 and is now located in the dining room of the Hotel Manoir Richelieu in Quebec, Canada.
Douglas S. Ronaldson was born in 1825 in England, died in 1902. He came in 1840 to Philadelphia and worked there until 1858 as an engraver. From the ABNC, he was employed in 1860 and remained even after the merger there until 1897. At that time he joined the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and worked there until his death.
Charles Skinner, born in 1841, died on 14th March 1932. In the early 60s he worked as a book illustrator in New York City. He joined the ABNC in 1864 and then moved in 1874 to the Continental BNCo and stayed there until retirement in June 1911.
VARIETIES
The 5¢ Columbian’s color ranges from pale brown to yellow brown, dark chocolate to chocolate. With the 5¢ there is little in the way of variety.
ESSAYS AND PROOFS
Despite the popularity of the Columbian series there are very few essays and proofs on the market.
- Brookman, Lester G., U.S. Postage Stamps of the 19th Century, Lindquist 1966
.comThe Swedish Tiger’s US Stamp Site An Illustrated Guide
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