Issued: 5th October 1894, earliest recorded example 11th October 1894

Plate Size: Sheets of 400 subjects (4 panes of 100)

Printer: The Bureau of Printing and Engraving, their first contract

Watermark: None

Quantity Issued: 96,000,000

Slightly harder to find mint due to the fact that collectors at the time did not pick up on the color change. Produced off the same plates as #248 plus new plates.

Below is a typical example of the 1894 Bureau Issue, you will notice the blind perfs and rough appearance of the perforations. The machines for perforating the stamp had just been relocated from New York to Washington DC and did not have the old operators from the ABC, consequently the new operators took some time to get used to perforating the large sheets of 400 stamps. By the next issue, in 1895, they had got the practice down to a science, hence that issue has nice clean cut perforations. The untidy perforations of this issue does not detract from its value.

Occasionaly postmarks from states that had tiny amounts of mail in this year can add to the value. This is particularly true of Alaska and the Territories. For a list of the number of stamps issued by each state in the year ending 30th June 1894 click here.

The design was taken from the portrait bust of Washington by Jean Antoine Houdon. Now at Mount Vernon.

No varieties recorded

I have not been able to locate a proof or essay of #249