Issued: Introduced on June 17th, 1890. Earliest documented use, a first day cover from June 17th 1898

Plate Size: Sheets of 100 subjects (2 panes of 50). There are no full panes of 50 left. Well centered blocks of four are scarce and MH copies will sell for $17,000.

Printer: The Bureau of Printing and Engraving

Watermark: Double lined USPS watermark.

Quantity Issued: 530,400

Light cancels

The 50c was used mostly for registered mail or for heavy letters. As a result it rarely had the first class mail cancel, it is more likely it had a heavy handstamp, and most 50¢ Trans-Mississippi stamps are marred with an ugly blurred cancel or obliterated by a thick registry cancel, such as the one shown below.

A typical heavy registry cancel

The inspiration for the design was "The Gold Bug" by Augustus Goodyear Heaton.

The Goldbug by Fredrick Remington

Much has been written about the discovery of gold at Sutters Mill, California, the gold rush that resulted and the 'Forty Niners'. However this stamp was aimed more towards the gold prospectors of a later period. Many of those who rode the Oregon trail went in search of Gold, including some gold fields in Oregon.

All that was needed is a simple flat pan, a strong back, and patience. The large nuggets that Gold Prospectors dreamt of, were found mainly by water jets and sluices. Most gold in a stream is dust—tiny flecks mixed in with ordinary dirt. These dust particles aren’t heavy; each one weighs only a fraction of a gram. But gold particles, no matter how small, are the densest part of the mix. This causes the gold flecks to sink through water faster than everything else.

To prospect for gold, prospectors use a pan to dredge up silt and rocks from the bottom of a river. They pick out the big rocks and add water from the river to the pan. Then they swirl the pan of silt and water, allowing anything that does not sink quickly to the bottom of the pan to flow out of the pan. Prospectors repeat this process until they are left with only “black sand,” which is very dense. If they are lucky, the black sand will contain tiny gold flecks. Then they pick out the flecks, and start again. If they are very lucky, they will find nuggets of gold (see below for a typical tiny nugget, it would have rested on the tip of your finger)

 

291-E1
Vignette design
Die essay on india
Die sunk on card

291-E4
Showing Hills
Die essay on india
Die sunk on card

#291 E5
The original bi-color design (green and black)
Die sunk on card
The bi-color design had to be dropped as the bi-color printing process
was taxed to the max printing revenue stamps for the Spanish-American
war that had broken out.

291-E7
Vignette on india (sage green)

291-E8 Detail
Die essay on india
Die sunk on card

291-E10
Die essay on india or wove
Engraving on bottom of miner's pan dots only
Die sunk on card

#291-P1
Sage-green large die proof pulled on
India paper and die sunk on card

#291 P2
Roosevelt Album Proof
Mounted on gray card