Page 10 - Demo

THE CHICKEN STAMP CENTENNIALlife after it won the Grand Championship at the 1948 New York Poultry Show. Depending on which report you read, the bird%u2019s name was either Limecrest King, or Limestone King. While the Bureau of Engraving may have used Schilling%u2019s drawing, Ericsson, the stamp%u2019s official designer, claimed the Brahma in his drawing belonged to George Winters of West Hampton Beach, Long Island. Although many news reports described the chicken as a hen, it was in fact a rooster. The Brahma breed was first introduced to America from China via England, and was originally known as a Gray Shanghai. Once it was established in this country, breeders developed three varieties, a light, a dark, and a buff version. The one featured on the poultry stamp was a light variety, which is known for its white body feathers and strikingly patterned neck and tail feathers. A standard Brahma hen weighs about 9%u00bd pounds, lays large brown eggs, but is best known for her meat quality. The larger cock weighs in at around 12 pounds. While the Light Brahma was a fine chicken, and was said by some to be the oldest breed in America, others complained that a local native breed would have been a much better representative. %u201cWhy not a Plymouth Rock, Rhode Island Red, or Wyandotte?,%u201d they sputtered.THE RELEASEThe Post Office Department put out several announcements pertaining to the poultry stamp. The first was on July 21, 1948. A week later, the Postal Bulletin listed the stamp%u2019s upcoming release date as September 14. Then in the August 19 issue, it was revised to the correct date of September 9. Needless to say, this led to some confusion because early news reports printed the wrong date. On August 16, 1948, in News Release No. 496, Postmaster General Jesse M. Donaldson noted that the new stamp would feature the words, %u201cCentennial of the American Poultry Industry,%u201d with the dates 1848 and 1948 all in a Gothic font. The Release also stated the stamp would be 0.84-inch high by 1.44-inch wide, printed in sheets of 50, and be electriceye perforated. Finally, it added that fifty-million stamps had been authorized, and the %u201ccolor would be announced later.%u201d Most of the same information was repeated ten days later, in the August 26 Postal Bulletin, along with comprehensive instructions for individuals seeking First Day Covers.Four printing plates were used to produce the new poultry stamp, having numbers 23900, 23901, 23902, and 23903. On September 1, stamps were printed from plates 23900 and 23903, and those were used on the First Day of Issue in New Haven. The other two plates were run through the press on September 7. A total of 52,975,000 stamps were printed with sepia-colored ink on a rotary press by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalog assigned it number 968.Drawing of the Brahma Light rooster of Harvey C. Wood used in designing the 1948 poultry stamp by the Bureau of Engraving.