"Suffrage for Women" printed right on the stamp, honoring the woman who fought for the vote she never got to cast legally.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Catalog Number: Scott #784

• Denomination: 3 cents (3¢)

• Date of Issue: August 26, 1936

• Printing Method: Rotary Press, Engraved (Intaglio)

• Perforation: 11 × 10½

• Color: Purple

• Subject: Portrait of Susan B. Anthony, social reformer and women's rights leader

• Format: Commemorative single

CONDITION ANALYSIS (Seller-Assessed)

• Status: Used

• Grading: Very Fine

• Postmark: Light black postmark touching the left and lower margins, with a faint partial letter visible. The portrait and inscriptions stay clean and fully legible.

• Obverse: The oval portrait and text are all sharp and clearly identifiable.

• Reverse: No original gum present, as expected for a used stamp. The paper shows light toning with a few small specks, and no tears or thinning visible.

• Centering / Margins: The design is within the frame with a rightward shift.

• Perforations: Intact on all four sides.

HISTORY

Susan B. Anthony spent her life pushing against laws that told her what she could not do, and the most famous moment came in 1872, when she voted in the presidential election in Rochester, New York. She was arrested, tried, and fined one hundred dollars, which she refused to pay. Her point was made: women were citizens, and citizens vote. She did not live to see the principle written into law.

Anthony had come to the cause through the reform movements of the mid-century, working first in the temperance and antislavery campaigns before dedicating herself to women's rights alongside her close ally Elizabeth Cady Stanton. For decades she organized, lectured, petitioned, and endured ridicule, building the movement that would eventually succeed.

The Nineteenth Amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote, was ratified in 1920, fourteen years after her death. It was nicknamed the "Anthony Amendment" in her honor. This stamp, issued August 26, 1936, in purple, carries the words "Suffrage for Women" directly in its design, an unusually direct political statement for a United States stamp, and a fitting tribute to a woman who refused to wait for permission.

STEVEN SAYS

She voted in 1872, got arrested for it, and was fined a hundred dollars she flatly refused to pay. That was the whole point. She never lived to see women legally win the vote, but they named the amendment after her. I like that the stamp itself says "Suffrage for Women" right on the front.