Page 24 - Demo

An early report said 100-million Project Mercury stamps were printed in the first secret run, while another said 110-million. Today, the first printing is known to have been for 120-million stamps. Because of the tremendous demand, on the very evening after Glenn%u2019s February 20 flight, a second printing was authorized%u2014for another 100-million stamps. The order for the third printing was announced only three days after that, on February 23, 1962%u2014for yet another 100-million. There were a total of 1,602,232 impressions taken during the three printings, for a grand total of 320,466,400 stamps.Six plate numbers were used to print the Project Mercury stamp: 27064, 27065, 27066, 27067, 27068, and 27071. All were used in the first run, and all but 27064 and 27068 were used on the second and third printings. Most collectors cannot tell the difference between stamps from the different print runs.Each plate produced sheets of 200 stamps, with a plate number in the selvedge of each corner. Those sheets were cut into quarters containing 50 stamps and one plate number. A matched set of plate-number blocks is defined as four blocks (each containing four stamps), with the same plate number in the selvedge, but in a different corner. Thus, each block originated from a different quarter of the large 200-stamp sheet. This collection contains one matched set for each of the six different printing plates used.