19th Century US Unused Collectible Stamps

In the United States, the very first official US stamps were printed and issued in the year 1847. They depicted Benjamin Franklin, which was a 5 cent stamp and also George Washington our first president, which was a 10 cent stamp. For about half a century until the end of the 19th century, many very valuable and highly collectible stamps were printed during this time - much of these are extremely desirable to US stamp collectors today, especially the unused variety.

Many of the stamps during this time include the imperforated series of the 1850s, bank note stamps, Civil War stamps and some of the very first US commemorative stamps. In 1869, new pictorial stamps were issued, which are stamps that featured and depicted other images than the usual leaders of the US. Later on in the 19th Century, the US Commemorative stamps were being issued at the World Columbian Exposition in the city of Chicago during 1893.

As a matter of fact, people way back then in the US were even collecting stamps and getting involved with the philately hobby. As early as 1875, special sets were being re-printed just for the collectors in the 19th century out there. Usually anything that is printed just for the collector is going to be designed to be unused, still in mint condition and worth a little more, especially from this era.