FREE: 1904 2¢ Thomas Jefferson - US Scott # 324

The listing, 1904 2¢ Thomas Jefferson - US Scott # 324 has ended.

U.S. #324
1904 2¢ Jefferson
Louisiana Purchase Commemorative

Issue Date: April 30, 1904
Quantity issued: 192,732,400
Printed by: Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Method: Flat plate
Watermark: Double line USPS
Perforation: 12
Color: Carmine

The 1904 Louisiana Purchase commemoratives honor the 100th anniversary of the historic event. Promoters of a proposed exposition marking the purchase lobbied for a Congressional bill to subsidize the exposition. President William McKinley signed the bill, prompting the Post Office Department to consider commemorative stamps and the authorization of cancelling slogans to advertise the event. Five commemorative stamps were issued in denominations ranging from 1¢ to 10¢.

Thomas Jefferson is pictured on the 2¢ Louisiana Purchase commemorative stamp. Jefferson is remembered as our third President, but he was also a lawyer, legislator, educator, author, musician, inventor, mathematician, farmer, and statesman! He was very interested in westward expansion, but he worried about France and Spain’s possessions west of the Mississippi. When the time was right, he wisely took advantage of financial problems in France and bought the Louisiana Territory.

The Louisiana Purchase Changes the Face of America
In 1762, 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.