The Post Office issued this stamp on January 30, 1946 (Roosevelt's birthday, and nine months after his death) combining his portrait with the Four Freedoms he had proclaimed five years earlier.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Catalog Number: Scott #933

• Denomination: 5 cents (5¢)

• Date of Issue: January 30, 1946

• Printing Method: Rotary Press, Engraved (Intaglio)

• Perforation: 11 × 10½

• Color: Bright Blue

• Subject: Portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt with Four Freedoms inscription

CONDITION ANALYSIS (Seller-Assessed)

• Status: Used

• Grading: Extremely Fine

• Postmark: Wavy-line machine postmark present, falling without obscuring the portrait or principal design elements.

• Obverse: Bright blue color is well-preserved with strong, consistent ink saturation. No significant fading or surface damage observed.

• Reverse: Paper is clean and white with no visible defects. No gum present, consistent with a stamp soaked from an envelope. No hinge marks.

• Centering / Margins: Excellent, with perforations clear of the design frame on all sides.

• Perforations: All perforations intact. No tears, stains, or paper thins observed.

  
  

HISTORY

Franklin D. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, at Warm Springs, Georgia, less than a month before Germany's surrender and four months before the end of the war he had led the country through since 1941. The U.S. Post Office Department issued this memorial stamp on January 30, 1946 (his birthday) as part of a four-stamp Roosevelt Memorial Issue that honored different aspects of his presidency.

This stamp, Scott #933, combines Roosevelt's portrait with a globe bearing the inscription of his Four Freedoms - the framework he articulated in his January 1941 State of the Union address: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. The Four Freedoms had by 1946 become shorthand for Allied war aims and the ideological foundations of the postwar order, making the combination of portrait and inscription a fitting summary of Roosevelt's legacy.

The 5¢ denomination served the domestic airmail rate, giving this commemorative a practical postal role alongside its memorial significance. The bright blue color was visually distinctive and has held up well across decades, making well-preserved examples easy to appreciate.

STEVEN SAYS

January 30, his birthday. The Post Office did this deliberately, same as they did with Einstein twenty years later. Roosevelt's portrait with the Four Freedoms inscription is a clean summary of what his presidency stood for. Nine months after he died, this was in the mail.

Technical Specifications

• Catalog Number: Scott #933

• Denomination: 5 cents (5¢)

• Date of Issue: January 30, 1946

• Printing Method: Rotary Press

• Perforation: 11 x 10½

• Color: Bright Blue

• Mintage: Approximately 76,455,400 copies

• Subject: Portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt with the “Four Freedoms” inscription

Condition Analysis

Status: 

Used and Uncertified. 

Sellers Grading: Extremely Fine

Obverse: 

The blue color remains bright and the shade is well-preserved.

Reverse: 

The paper is clean and white with no visible defects. There is no gum (adhesive), indicating the stamp was soaked off an envelope. There are no hinge marks.

Centering / Margins: 

Excellent! The perforations do not touch the design.

Postmark: 

Beautiful wavy line

Other Findings: 

The perforations are in good condition with all teeth intact. No tears, stains, or paper thins are observed.