Four women in the uniforms of the Marines, Army, Navy, and Air Force, standing before the Capitol.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Catalog Number: Scott #1013

• Denomination: 3 cents (3¢)

• Date of Issue: September 11, 1952

• Printing Method: Rotary Press, Engraved (Intaglio)

• Perforation: 11 × 10½

• Color: Deep Blue

• Subject: Four servicewomen representing the Marines, Army, Navy, and Air Force, with the U.S. Capitol behind

• Format: Commemorative single

CONDITION ANALYSIS (Seller-Assessed)

• Status: Used

• Grading: Fine

• Postmark: Black machine postmark with partial slogan wording across the lower margin. The design of the four servicewomen and the text remain clearly readable.

• Obverse: The four uniformed figures, the Capitol dome, the ribbon panel with the denomination, and the title inscription are all sharp and identifiable.

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

• Centering / Margins: The design sits comfortably within the frame with slight shift upward, with clear margins present on all four sides.

• Perforations: Intact on all four sides.

HISTORY

By 1952 women had become a permanent part of the United States military, and this stamp marked that shift. During World War II, hundreds of thousands of women had served in uniform through organizations like the WACs, WAVES, and the Marine Corps Women's Reserve, filling essential roles from clerical and communications work to flying aircraft on non-combat missions. Their service was originally framed as a temporary wartime necessity.

That changed in 1948, when Congress passed the Women's Armed Services Integration Act, giving women permanent status in the regular and reserve forces rather than only in emergency auxiliaries. This stamp, issued a few years later, celebrates that new standing. Its design shows four women in the dress uniforms of the different branches, marching forward together with the Capitol rising behind them, a deliberate image of women as full and lasting members of the national defense.

Issued September 11, 1952, in deep blue, the stamp appeared during the Korean War, when servicewomen were again in uniform in significant numbers. It stands as an early official acknowledgment of a change that would keep expanding for decades, and a small tribute to the women who made military service a career rather than a wartime exception.

STEVEN SAYS

This one marks a real turning point. Women served in huge numbers in World War II, but only as temporary wartime help. In 1948 a law finally gave them permanent status in the military, and this stamp a few years later shows all four branches, women marching in front of the Capitol. Full members, not a temporary fix.