Dear Sir,

Plates 1 and 2 of the 35¢ Drew (Scott #1865) were sent to press on May 14, 1981 for a total of 472,379 impressions.

Plates 3 and 4 were sent to press on May 22, 1981 for 12,098 impressions each, the lowest number of any of the Great Americans series.

Mint stamps from plates 1 and 2 will, if permitted, curl toward the print side along the vertical axis.  Stamps from plates 3 and 4 do not curl.  In printing the first two plates, the web was moistened prior to the Cottrell press intaglio station.  The web was not moistened when plates 3 and 4 were on press, a watershed of sorts.
Plates 3 and 4 were available briefly from the Philatelic Agency in vertical strips of 20, where I obtained all but the lower right position.  On my upper right strips, only the left half of the left column of stamps is tagged.  That is, the entire sheet was tagged EXCEPT for the right hand selvage, the far right column of stamps and the right half of the adjacent column of stamps.

Members who have UR and LR examples of plates 3 and 4 should check them for the untagged error.  Scott prices the error at $85.00.

Sincerely,
David Stiff