Page "Postage stamps and postal history of the United States" Paragraph 127

The famous Presidential Issue, known as " Prexies " for short, came out in 1938.

The series featured all 29 U. S. presidents through Calvin Coolidge, each of whom appeared in profile as a small sculptural bust.

Values of 50 ¢ and lower were mono-colored ; on the $ 1, $ 2, and $ 5 stamps the presidents ' images were printed in black on white, surrounded by colored lettering and ornamentation.

Up through the 22 ¢ Cleveland stamp, the denomination assigned to each president corresponds to his position in the presidential roster: thus the first president, Washington, is on the 1 ¢ value, the seventeenth, Andrew Johnson, is on the 17 ¢ value, etc.

Additional stamps depict Franklin ( ½ ¢), Martha Washington ( 1½ ¢), and the White House ( 4½ ¢).

Many of the values were included merely to place the presidents in proper numerical order and did not necessarily correspond to a postal rate ; and one of the ( difficult ) games for Prexie collectors is to find a cover with, for instance, a single 16 ¢ stamp that pays a combination of rate and fees valid during the Prexies ' period of usage.

Many such covers remain to be discovered ; some sellers on eBay have been surprised to discover an ordinary-seeming cover bid up to several hundred dollars because it was one of the sought-after solo usages.

The Presidential issue remained in distribution for many years.

Not until 1954 did the Post Office begin replacing its values with the stamps of a new definitive issue, the Liberty series.