Postage Stamp Ruse of 1935. Swapped Heads fool Uncle Sam

I discovered a fellow tricking Uncle Sam way back in 1935.  See anything wrong with the two examples of stamps on top here?  The 1 cent  stamp is supposed to depict Franklin, yet Lincoln fills the center!  The 2 cent stamp is supposed to depict Washington, but this one has Nathan Hale.  In the second example, Franklin has been replaced with Washington!  What the?  Both envelopes have been mailed and the rogue stamps cancelled.  The four relevant and proper stamps follow below.  Pretty good, eh?  Actually, one Charles Bradley expertly clipped out and swapped the heads before mailing them back to himself.  Why?  I dunno.  I think some folks just like to put one over on the government.  A while ago I gave an interview in which I claimed not to be a stamp collector.  I guess I am now.

Mixed up US postage stamps circa 1935 Collection Jim Linderman

FIFTEEN HEROIN ABUSERS HONORED WITH UNITED STATES POSTAGE STAMPS (The Dull Tool Dim Bulb Stupid Useless Internet List)

TOP FIFTEEN HEROIN ABUSERS HONORED WITH UNITED STATES POSTAGE STAMPS  (The Dull Tool Dim Bulb Useless Internet List)

We have certainly had enough of those stupid internet lists.  They are easy to produce, easy to post and designed for only one purpose.  That is to force you to click or scroll through advertisements until your finger hurts.  More annoying than pop-up ads and just as useless.

My internet list is  FIFTEEN PERSONS ON UNITED STATES POSTAGE STAMPS WHO ABUSED HEROIN but you won't find any ads here unless Google force slips some in, which is both something they have been known to do…and their business model. 

I've included not only heroin users, but a few opiate and morphine users to round out the list…I didn't want them all to be jazz musicians. You can look them up to verify if you like. If I had been inclined to use alcoholics, trust I would have had a hundred more to include.

In the old days, and by that I mean about the time Reagan took office, it was a considerable honor to be placed on a United States Postage Stamp.  First of all, there were rigorous standards…notables had to have contributed to the American collective greatness.  Highly competitive contests were run for artists to have the honor of painting the work to be shown.  And yes, postage stamps were limited edition lithographs in themselves.  Fine, high quality prints in miniature.  Now they are just texture free pieces of paper.  One need not lick them either…there is far less DNA on letters today.  I am certainly NOT implying any of the above are not heroic American figures, as they certainly all are.  I just needed a useless common characteristic to make my list go viral! 

Today most United States postage stamps are crap from major U.S. corporations.   Disney.  Entertainment companies.  The post office licenses them from business.  The honor is pretty much gone, as is the denomination.  Stamps are now "forever" stamps, but there is no longer a reason to keep them that long in a collector's album. They are, for the most part, "product" from corporations who already take far too much of our time and money.  I purchased Batman stamps today.  An American hero of sorts, but while they don't say it on the stamp, merely an ad for the next movie in the franchise.