# 3782 - 2003 37c Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial
37¢ Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial
City: New Orleans, Louisiana
Quantity: 54,000,000
Printed By: American Packaging Corporation for Sennett Security Products
Printing Method: Photogravure
Perforations: Serpentine Die Cut 10 ¾
Color: Multicolored
Three Flags Day
In the early 1800s, Napoleon Bonaparte sought to create a great French empire in the New World. The center of the empire was to be the nation of Hispaniola. Napoleon envisioned that the Mississippi Valley would be the trade center of the new empire, shipping food and supplies from America to Hispaniola.
Commerce in the US depended heavily on waterways during the early 1800s. None was more important to US interests than the mighty Mississippi River and the port city of New Orleans. Fearful that the US might lose navigational rights along the Mississippi, President Thomas Jefferson sent James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston to Paris to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans and its immediate surrounding area. Jefferson also sent Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, a French nobleman living in the United States. He had political connections in France, so Jefferson asked him to help with negotiations.
Monroe and Livingston were prepared to offer $10 million for the port city, but France offered the entire 530-million-acre area for $15 million. Concerned Napoleon would withdraw the offer at any time, the representatives agreed without consulting the president, and the treaty was signed on April 30, 1803.
37¢ Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial
City: New Orleans, Louisiana
Quantity: 54,000,000
Printed By: American Packaging Corporation for Sennett Security Products
Printing Method: Photogravure
Perforations: Serpentine Die Cut 10 ¾
Color: Multicolored
Three Flags Day
In the early 1800s, Napoleon Bonaparte sought to create a great French empire in the New World. The center of the empire was to be the nation of Hispaniola. Napoleon envisioned that the Mississippi Valley would be the trade center of the new empire, shipping food and supplies from America to Hispaniola.
Commerce in the US depended heavily on waterways during the early 1800s. None was more important to US interests than the mighty Mississippi River and the port city of New Orleans. Fearful that the US might lose navigational rights along the Mississippi, President Thomas Jefferson sent James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston to Paris to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans and its immediate surrounding area. Jefferson also sent Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, a French nobleman living in the United States. He had political connections in France, so Jefferson asked him to help with negotiations.
Monroe and Livingston were prepared to offer $10 million for the port city, but France offered the entire 530-million-acre area for $15 million. Concerned Napoleon would withdraw the offer at any time, the representatives agreed without consulting the president, and the treaty was signed on April 30, 1803.