2c carmine Abraham Lincoln Centenary of Birth plate proof

February 12, 1909

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing printed its third U.S. definitive stamp series in 1908. Every stamp in the series pictured either George Washington or Benjamin Franklin, and the public protested that Lincoln had been slighted on the eve of his 100th birthday. In response, this commemorative stamp was created from a bust of Lincoln by the great sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens and issued on the centenary date. Two cents paid the domestic first class letter rate at the time. Like the 5¢ blue Lincoln of 1903, this stamp was later reissued in imperforate and coil formats.