A gold miner, settlers, an oil derrick, and orchard fruit in one frame, a hundred years of the Golden State in gold-toned ink.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Catalog Number: Scott #997

• Denomination: 3 cents (3¢)

• Date of Issue: September 9, 1950

• Printing Method: Rotary Press, Engraved (Intaglio)

• Perforation: 11 × 10½

• Color: Yellow Orange

• Subject: Symbols of California's growth, marking 100 years of statehood

• Format: Commemorative single

CONDITION ANALYSIS (Seller-Assessed)

• Status: Used

• Grading: Fine

• Postmark: Black machine postmark of parallel straight lines across the center. The California inscription, the dates 1850 and 1950, the miner, settlers, and oil derrick remain identifiable.

• Obverse: The gold miner, the settler couple, the oxen, the fruit and grapes, the oil derrick, and the centennial inscription are all identifiable.

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

• Centering / Margins: The design sits comfortably within the frame, with slight rightward and downward shifts.

• Perforations: Intact on all four sides.

HISTORY

California became the thirty-first state in 1850, and it did so in a hurry, skipping the usual territorial stage entirely. The reason was gold. The 1848 discovery at Sutter's Mill set off the largest gold rush in American history, and within two years the population had exploded as hundreds of thousands of people poured in from around the world. Congress admitted California directly as a free state under the Compromise of 1850, a decision that intensified the national argument over slavery even as it welcomed a booming new state.

This stamp, issued for the statehood centennial, tries to pack a whole century of California's identity into one small design. A gold miner pans at his stream, a pioneer couple and their oxen represent the overland settlers, and the fruit, grapes, and oil derrick stand for the agriculture and petroleum industries that made the state an economic giant long after the gold ran out.

Issued September 9, 1950, in a fitting yellow orange, the color of gold and California sunshine, it celebrates a state that went from frontier to powerhouse in a hundred years. The design reads like a quick illustrated summary of how the Golden State was built, from the prospector's pan to the oil field.

STEVEN SAYS

California skipped straight to statehood in 1850 because of the Gold Rush, no territory stage, just boom. The design crams the whole story in: a miner panning, pioneer settlers, then the fruit and oil that came later. And they printed it in gold-orange, which is a nice touch for the Golden State. A lot going on in one small stamp.