Postage Stamps of the United States First Issued in 1933  1933: Air Mail Stamps - The "Baby" Zepp Presidents: Jan. 1 - Mar. 3: Herbert Hoover  ·  Mar. 4 - Dec. 31: Franklin Delano Roosevelt Postmasters General: Jan. 1 - Mar. 4: Walter F. Brown  ·  Mar. 4 - Dec. 31: James A. Farley Domestic Letter Rate: 3¢ per oz. ·  Postcard Rate: 1¢  ·  Air Mail Rate: 8¢ per oz. Commemorative Postage Stamps of 1933   Flat Plate - Perforated 11 - 400 Subject Plates Georgia Bicentennial - General Oglethorpe First Day: Feb. 12, 1933 · 61,719,200 issued Polish American Issue - General Kosciuszko First Day: Oct. 13, 1933 · 45,137,700 issued      Flat Plate - Perforated 11 - 200 Subject Plates "Little America" - Admiral Byrd Antarctic Expedition First Day: Oct. 9, 1933 - 5,735,944 issued see "The Farley's" for Varieties of this Stamp      Rotary Press - Perf 10½ x  11 - 400 Subject Plates Proclamation of Peace Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh, N.Y. First Day: Apr. 19, 1933 - 73,382,400 issued see "The Farley's" for Varieties of this Stamp Chicago Century of Progress Restoration of Fort Dearborn First Day: May 25, 1933 - 348,266,800 issued see "The Farley's" for Varieties of this Stamp Chicago Century of Progress - Federal Building First Day: May 25, 1933 - 480,239,300 issued see "The Farley's" for Varieties of this Stamp The National Recovery Act First Day: Aug. 15, 1933 - 1,978,707,300 issued No "Farley" Varieties for this Stamp The 3¢ Georgia Bicentennial Issue  Flat Plate - Perf 11 - 400 Subject Plates - First Day: Feb. 12, 1933 - 61,719,200 issued As with the William Penn commemorative stamp of a year earlier, the General Oglethorpe stamp honored a "social experiment", a settlement with humanitarian goals, in principal at least to provide a new home for the disenfranchised in England's crowded debtors prisons. In practice, Oglethorpe's settlement was more a deliberate attempt to establish a dividing line between British and Spanish occupation in North America.  Oglethorpe landed in what is now Savannah, Georgia on February 12, 1733. As William Penn had done in his vision of the city of Philadelphia, Oglethorpe instituted a master plan for the city of Savannah, establishing an ingenious grid of squares, each surrounded by businesses, houses and churches, mini-communities within the larger city. Today these "squares", each with its own personality, gives Savannah its unique charm. In a preemptive move, Oglethorpe built a military stronghold about sixty miles south of Savannah, at Fort Frederica. Attempts by the Spanish to unseat the English colonists were so unsuccessful that it is believed to have signaled the end of Spanish expansion north of Florida. First Day sales in Savannah, Georgia, were on the 200th anniversary of Oglethorpe's landing and a day later, February 13, 1933, in Washington, D.C. The 3¢ Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh, New York   Rotary Press - Perf 10½ x 11 - 400 Subjects - FDC: Apr. 19, 1933 - 73,382,400 issued This stamp was the first issued under the administration of President Roosevelt, which began on March 4, 1933. Roosevelt was the first serious philatelist to become president and of course became involved with the issuance of stamps almost immediately upon taking office.  In what, at the time, must have seemed like a promotional event, Roosevelt ordered the presses stopped and bought one of the sheets of 400, something that certainly would seem to be a real shot in the arm for U.S. stamp collecting. What the Postmaster did not realize was that this sheet, which did not pass through the gumming and perforation stages of the stamp's production, was a very different animal than the gummed and perforated issues. There is some controversy regarding whether Roosevelt realized this distinction. In retrospect it is hard to believe that a stamp collector would not realize the difference in value of the exceptionally rare imperforate stamp, in this case only Roosevelt's sheet existed,  and the normal issue. The controversy surrounding this practice ultimately led to the issuance of special imperforate sheets in an effort to insure that any collector could obtain an identical sheet to the one which Roosevelt and a few selected others had received.  The Air Mail Stamp of 1933   Flat Plate - Perforated 11 - 200 Subject Plates C18 - Chicago Century of Progress  First Day: Oct. 2, 1933 - 4,302,950 issued Previous: Air Mail stamps of 1932    Next: Air Mail stamps of 1934

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