Under an Act of Congress approved October 3, I9I7, effective November 2nd of that year, the letter rate of postage had been raised to three cents. The registry and special delivery rate remaining unchanged, there was once more a real need for thirteen cent stamps.

This stamp was commonly precancelled, an example is shown above. In this case the precancel was applied inverted, this does not have any effect on the value.

The source for the design was this bust by Jean-Antoine Houdon

513's earliest documented date of use, January 11th, 1919