Today, April 7 2006, the USPS releases four Benjamin Franklin commemorative stamps. First day issue is in Philadelphia, PA and come in a PSA pane of 20.

There is a reason that books have been written about Benjamin Franklin. There would be no possible way to explore his life, dream’s and accomplishments in just a few short paragraphs. Philatelists know him as Postmaster, yet there was so much more to Benjamin Franklin who also carried the title Statesman, Scientist, and Printer. All four of these accomplishments are captured in the stamp designs of this release.

The Statesman stamp comes from the design elements of John Trumbull’s famous painting of the Declaration of Independence (Scott #1687), Franklins “Join or Die” political cartoon urging unity, the upper portion of the Declaration of Independence, a pastel portrait of Franklin by Joseph Siffred Duplessis, and the French side of the Treaty of Alliance with France. The latter Franklin negotiated and signed.

The stamp featuring the Scientist Franklin also pulled several design elements from various sources. A Currier and Ives lithograph of Franklin and his son during the electricity kite experiment, a page of Franklins “Experiments and Observations on Electricity” showing water spouts and a “magic square”, a schematic drawing of Franklin’s “three-wheeled clock” from the book “Select Mechanical Exercises”, and Franklin at a writing desk from the mural by Charles Elliott Mills. The mural is hanging at the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts.

As for Franklin the Printer, this stamp pulls from design elements found in a portrait of Franklin in a printer smock by Illustrator Michael Dooling, the front of the “Poor Richard’s Almanac”, and a five-pound currency note printed by Franklin. Perhaps Franklin’s printing of money was the means that gave him all his spare time to do so many other things than work…probably not.

The Postmaster stamp honors Franklin by using a graphic device used by the Boston Post-Boy newspaper during the middle eighteenth century, a colonial poster cover from Marlbro Maryland, a colonial-era date postmark, and a late eighteenth century painting of Franklin by Charles Wilson Peale. Did you know that Benjamin Franklin used the signature “B. Free Franklin, Postmaster” when franking?

The first United States stamp that Benjamin Franklin appeared on was the 1847 imperforate five-cent red brown stamp (Scott #1). The last United States stamp that Franklin appeared on was the 1997 Pacifica ’97 pane of 12 (Scott # 3139). The single fifty-cent stamp had Scott # 3139a.