Stamp Stories from around the world

The second stamp from the United States that did not show a president was issued in 1869. It was issued in honor of America’s first transcontinental railroad (known originally as the “Pacific Railroad” and later as the “Overland Route”). It was a 1,911-mile (3,075 km) continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Council Bluffs, Iowa, with the Pacific coast in San Francisco. Todays stamp is a three cent stamp showing a locomotive. The stamp exists both with grill and without grill. A grill on a postage stamp is an embossed pattern of small indentations intended to discourage postage stamp reuse. The catalog value of the stamp with grill is approx. 125$ and without grill 1.200$.