1c Abraham Lincoln plate proof

Bureau of Engraving and Printing · February 12, 1959

This 1¢ green stamp, the low value in the Lincoln sesquicentennial series, pictures a beardless Lincoln on the eve of his presidency. The source of the design was a portrait by George P.A. Healy in the collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. The portrait was commissioned by Thomas B. Bryan, a Chicago lawyer and Lincoln supporter; Lincoln sat for it in the Senate chamber of the Old State House at Springfield, Illinois just after winning the presidency in 1860. It is believed to be the last time that Lincoln was painted without his familiar whiskers. The stamp was issued at Hodgenville, Kentucky, the nearest post office to Lincoln's birthplace in Hardin County.