The portrait on this stamp was sculpted by Daniel Chester French (better known for the seated Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial) completed just seventeen years before this stamp was issued.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Catalog Number: Scott #841

• Denomination: 2 cents (2¢)

• Date of Issue: January 20, 1939

• Printing Method: Rotary Press

• Perforation: 10 Vertically (Coil — straight edges top and bottom)

• Color: Rose Carmine

• Subject: Portrait of John Adams, after the marble bust by Daniel Chester French

CONDITION ANALYSIS (Seller-Assessed)

• Status: Used

• Grading: Fine

• Postmark: Moderate impression present, falling without obscuring the portrait or principal design elements.

• Obverse: Color is well-preserved with no significant fading. Portrait is sharp and fully legible throughout.

• Reverse: Clean and intact. Straight-cut top and bottom edges are clearly visible on the reverse, confirming the vertical coil format.

• Centering / Margins: Well-centered within the margins. Design is slightly shifted to the right.

• Perforations: Perforations present on left and right sides only, consistent with coil format. One bottom left perforation is missing.

HISTORY

John Adams appears on the 2¢ denomination of the Presidential Series of 1938, the Prexies, issued as a coil stamp on January 20, 1939. The coil format, with perforations on the left and right sides only and straight-cut edges at top and bottom, was produced for use in vending machines and stamp dispensers. It’s a practical format that generated a distinct philatelic variety alongside the sheet stamp of the same design.

The portrait source is a marble bust by Daniel Chester French, one of the most accomplished American sculptors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. French is best known for the seated Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial, unveiled in 1922, but his Adams bust demonstrates the same careful attention to character and dignity that defined his work. Adams presents a particular challenge for portraiture (he left fewer widely recognized likenesses than Washington or Jefferson) and French's rendering gave the Prexies series one of its more distinctive presidential portraits.

Adams served as the second president from 1797 to 1801, and his place as the first occupant of the White House gives him a specific resonance in American presidential history that this coil stamp, issued to serve the 2¢ letter rate, carried quietly through millions of pieces of mail.

STEVEN SAYS

Daniel Chester French did the Lincoln Memorial. He also did the Adams bust on this stamp. That's a sculptor who understood what it meant to make someone look like they belonged in history.