John Paul Jones is credited with saying "I have not yet begun to fight" aboard the Bon Homme Richard in 1779: outnumbered, on fire, and still refusing to surrender. Both he and John Barry appear on this stamp, the two most celebrated naval commanders of the Revolutionary War.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Catalog Number: Scott #790

• Denomination: 1 cent (1¢)

• Date of Issue: December 15, 1936

• Printing Method: Rotary Press, Engraved (Intaglio)

• Perforation: 11 × 10½

• Color: Green

• Subject: Portraits of John Paul Jones and John Barry with their flagships, Bon Homme Richard and Lexington — Army and Navy Commemorative Series

CONDITION ANALYSIS (Seller-Assessed)

• Status: Used

• Grading: Fine

• Postmark: Heavy black wavy-line machine postmark across the bottom third, partially obscuring the ship names and lower portions of the portraits.

• Obverse: Portraits, ship illustrations, and principal inscriptions remain clearly identifiable.

• Reverse: No original gum present, as expected for a used stamp. Paper appears clean with no obvious thins, creases, or repairs.

• Centering / Margins: Fine. Slightly unbalanced margins. Left margin is wider than the right, top wider than the bottom. 

• Perforations: Generally sound with some minor roughness consistent with separation from a pane. Perforations do not cut into the design frame on any side.

HISTORY

The Army and Navy Commemorative Series of 1936-1937 honored American military leadership during the Revolutionary War through a set of ten stamps paired across five denominations — each denomination pairing one Army hero with one Navy hero. The Navy stamps appear on the odd denominations. Scott #790, the 1¢ value, pairs John Paul Jones and John Barry as the two pre-eminent naval commanders of the Revolution.

John Paul Jones, born in Scotland, became the Continental Navy's most celebrated commander. His famous engagement in September 1779, when his Bon Homme Richard battled the superior British warship Serapis off the coast of England, produced the defiant refusal to surrender that became one of the most repeated lines in American military history. John Barry, an Irish-born Philadelphia merchant captain, commanded the Lexington in some of the earliest naval engagements of the war and went on to a distinguished career that earned him the title of Commodore — the senior rank in the early U.S. Navy.

The design depicts both men in portrait, flanked by their respective flagships, a composition that balances the two figures and their ships within the compact 1¢ format.

STEVEN SAYS

Jones was on a burning, sinking ship when he said he hadn't yet begun to fight. He won that battle. Barry outlasted him and became the senior officer of the early Navy. The Army-Navy series is worth collecting as a complete set; ten stamps, ten pairings, one cohesive program.