# 2153 - 1985 22c Social Security Act

U.S. #2153
1985 22¢ Social Security Act

• Issued on 50^th anniversary of the 1935 Social Security Act
• Border and color resemble a Social Security card; vignette pictures different people who benefit from the agency’s programs.
• Tenth Government Agencies anniversary stamp

Stamp Category:  Commemorative
Set:  Government Agency Anniversaries
Value:  22¢, first-class rate
First Day of Issue:  August 14, 1985
First Day City:  Baltimore, Maryland
Quantity Issued:  120,000,000
Printed by:  American Bank Note Company
Printing Method:  Photogravure
Format:  Panes of 50 in sheets of 200
Perforations:  11
Colors:  Deep and light blue

Why the stamp was issued:  To commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the 1935 Social Security Act.

About the stamp design:  This stamp was the first to be designed by Robert Brandwyne.  The central portion pictures silhouettes representing all the people and programs affected by Social Security.  Pictured are an older man and a young buy, an injured man walking with a crutch, a girl pushing a woman in a wheelchair, and woman with a child in a stroller.  These represent old age assistance, Medicare and Medicaid, Disability Insurance, Aid to Dependent Children, Maternal and Child Health Care, and Child Welfare Services.

This wasn’t the first postal item to honor Social Security.  In 1964, it was featured on a postal card – US #UX51.

Special design details:  The stamp’s border includes the same two columns that appear on either side of a social security card.  And because Social Security cards are printed in blue, this stamp was printed in two shades of blue.

First Day City:  The First Day ceremony for this stamp was held at the Social Security headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland.  Among the guests was the first employee of the Social Security Administration. 

About the Government Agencies Series:  Beginning in 1983, the USPS began issuing a series of stamps marking notable anniversaries of several government agencies.  These included the Civilian Conservation Corps, Tennessee Valley Authority, Civil Service Act, FDIC, Soil and Water Conservation Act, Credit Union Act, National Archives, St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, and the Rural Electrification Administration. This Social Security stamp was the tenth stamp in the series.

History the stamp represents:  On August 14, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law.

The Social Security Act was part of Roosevelt’s second New Deal. The initial purpose of the act was to provide income for the unemployed and retirees beginning on January 1, 1940.

During his public statement on the day he signed the act into law, Roosevelt stated he was concerned for “young people [who] have come to wonder what would be their lot when they came to old age” as well as those that were employed but had no job security. Roosevelt went on to say that “we can never insure one hundred percent of the population against one hundred percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life,” and that he hoped the act would keep senior citizens from being impoverished.

Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont, received the first monthly retirement check. The retired legal secretary received a check in the amount of $22.54 and continued to receive payments until her death at age 100. In 1939, survivors’ benefits and payments for spouses and children were added.

Medicare was added in 1965, as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” program, and annual cost of living adjustments began in 1972. In 2004, $492 billion in benefits were distributed to 47.5 million people. Controversial at its passage, the future of Social Security is still an issue of national debate.