Presidentials (cont.)

As a child, my first stamp album was “The Premier World Stamp Album” sold by the Grossman Stamp Company of New York. For the most part, the Premier stamp album contained lower value and lower denomination stamps, but it did contain the entire Presidential set, excluding the coils. As I started filling up spaces in the United States section of my album, I quickly became consumed with the task of completing the Presidential issue. I went to every store I could find that sold stamp packets and if a given packet had just one of the more elusive values I needed, I would purchase the packet in an attempt to close in on my quest of completing the set. I remember the 11 cent through the 14 cent and the 16 cent through the 19 cent values being particularly difficult to acquire. Finally, after much searching and trading with friends, I was able to obtain every item in the set with the exception of the two and five dollar values containing Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge (see Figure 2, Mint $5 Presidential), respectively. To my disappointment, the packets that I was able to afford just did not contain those two stamps. Fortunately, after showing my Great Uncle Walter (who had started me on my journey of collecting stamps) my almost complete set, he came to my rescue and presented me used copies of the two missing stamps as my reward for diligently pursuing the other values. Now I was able to sit back and admire, what seemed to me, a wonderful set of stamps that was not only extremely attractive, but displayed all deceased Presidents in the order they served. In addition, the set included Benjamin Franklin, the first postmaster General along with the first First Lady, Martha Washington, and the home of the Presidents, the White House.

Figure 2.  Mint $5 Presidential