U.S. #1847
1983 4¢ Carl Schurz
Great Americans
- 9th Stamp in the Great Americans Series
- Honors German-American statesman and reformer Carl Schurz
Stamp Category: Definitive
Series: Great Americans
Value: 4¢; used predominantly as a “change maker”
First Day of Issue: June 3, 1983
First Day City: Watertown, Wisconsin
Quantity Issued: 100,000,000
Printed by: Bureau of Engraving & Printing
Printing Method: Engraved
Format: Panes of 100
Perforations: 11 x 10.5
Color: Violet
Why the stamp was issued: This stamp was intended to replace the 1967 4¢ Abraham Lincoln stamp from the Prominent Americans Series.
The most common use for this stamp was as a “change maker.” As Don McDowell of the Stamps Division pointed out, “When a small post office without a meter machine quotes a parcel post rate of $1.86 to a customer, they’d better have the ‘change maker’ stamps on hand to hit it exactly.” These low denominations were also useful in the event of a rate change.
About the stamp design: Richard Sparks created the portrait of Schurz for this stamp. He also illustrated the Great Americans George Mason stamp. Sparks had numerous photos to work from and depicted Schurz in a three-quarters profile view with his full beard and signature pince-nez glasses.
First Day City: The First Day ceremony for this stamp was held at Riverside Park in Watertown, Wisconsin, where Schurz settled in 1854 and made his first foray into American politics.
About the Great Americans Series: The Great Americans Series was created to replace the Americana Series. The new series would be characterized by a standard definitive size, simple design, and monochromatic colors.
This simple design included a portrait, “USA,” the denomination, the person’s name, and in some cases, their occupation or reason for recognition. The first stamp in the new series was issued on December 27, 1980. It honored Sequoyah and fulfilled the new international postcard rate that would go into effect in January 1981.
The Great Americans Series would honor a wider range of people than the previous Prominent Americans and Liberty Series. While those series mainly honored presidents and politicians, the Great Americans Series featured people from many fields and ethnicities. They were individuals who were leaders in education, the military, literature, the arts, and human and civil rights. Plus, while the previous series only honored a few women, the Great Americans featured 15 women. This was also the first definitive series to honor Native Americans, with five stamps.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) produced most of the stamps, but private firms printed some. Several stamps saw multiple printings. The result was many different varieties, with tagging being the key to understanding them. Though there were also differences in perforations, gum, paper, and ink color.
The final stamp in the series was issued on July 17, 1999, honoring Justin S. Morrill. Spanning 20 years, the Great Americans was the longest-running US definitive series. It was also the largest series of face-different stamps, with a total of 63.
Click here for all the individual stamps and click here for the complete series.
History the stamp represents: Carl Christian Schurz was born on March 2, 1829, in Liblar, in the Kingdom of Prussia, in the German Confederation. Schurz commanded forces during the Civil War, reformed the Civil Service and was a vocal proponent of forest preservation.
The son of a journalist and a schoolteacher, Schurz studied at the Jesuit Gymnasium of Cologne but had to leave early because of his family’s financial problems. He later finished school and went on to attend the University of Bonn.
While at Bonn, Schurz befriended his professor, Gottfried Kinkel. Together they created a newspaper that pushed for democratic reforms following the German revolutions of 1848-49. Schurz then answered the call to take up arms to defend the new German constitution. He served in the revolutionary army and fought several battles against the Prussian Army. During that fighting, he was the adjunct officer of the commander of the artillery.
In 1849, Schurz and the revolutionaries were defeated at the fortress of Rastatt. Schurz escaped before the Prussians began killing prisoners and fled to Zurich. He spent time in France and England, but ultimately decided to move to America in hopes of finding “a new, free world.”
After spending some time in Philadelphia, Schurz settled in Watertown, Wisconsin. His wife, Margarethe, opened the first kindergarten in America. Schurz was admitted to the bar in 1858 and practiced law in Milwaukee. Surrounded by others who fled Germany in the wake of the 1848 rebellion, Schurz solidified the young idealists’ support for Abraham Lincoln during the 1860 election. He was rewarded with an assignment as minister to Spain whose neutrality he assured. But Schurz had even bigger plans.
Although he had no formal military training, Schurz proposed forming a German cavalry regiment. Over the course of the next four years, nearly 177,000 German immigrants joined the Union Army. Schurz led many of them in the thickest of fighting at the battles of Second Bull Run, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg, where they died in disproportionately high numbers. Schurz continued to idolize Lincoln, naming his son after the president.
After the war, Schurz spent time in Detroit and St. Louis as editor of their newspapers. Then in 1868, he was elected to the US Senate representing Missouri. He was the first German American to serve in that body. He was well-liked and respected for his speeches. He eventually helped found the short-lived Liberal Republican Party. This party opposed the Radical Republicans’ and President Grant’s reconstruction policies, particularly the Enforcement Acts.
Schurz campaigned for Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876. He agreed with the future president on returning to the gold standard, reforming the Civil Service, and removing corruption from government. When Hayes took office, Schurz was appointed secretary of the Interior. The Office of Indian Affairs was in his department and he realized it was filled with corrupt workers, so it was one of the first offices that he reformed. He began testing employees for Civil Service, rather than relying on political favors. Schurz saw the need for forest preservation and became known as “Father of the Forest Reserves.” Many of his ideas were not implemented at the time but became part of the 1891 Forest Reservation Act.
After leaving office in 1881, Schurz went to New York and worked for several different newspapers over the years. He remained active in politics until his death on May 14, 1906.
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