5c Abraham Lincoln plate proof

Bureau of Engraving and Printing · January 20, 1903

With the 1902 definitive stamps, Lincoln was "promoted" from 4¢ to 5¢, the denomination for international first-class letters that weighed less than one ounce. General Ulysses S. Grant had been on the 5¢ stamp of the 1894 series, but Lincoln was substituted because he was more recognizable overseas and projected a better image of American greatness abroad. Blue was the color specified by the Universal Postal Union for stamps that paid the foreign letter rate. The stamp was later reissued in imperforate and coil formats, the latter being a great rarity of twentieth-century U.S. philately.