USA, ESSAY 184-E4k (dull carmine)
(SCHERNIKOW REPRINT, 1903)
3-CENTS, ENGRAVED, COMPLETE DIE ESSAY ON PROOF PAPER
USA, ESSAYS 184-E5e (dull violet) and 184-E5e (deep ultramarine)
(SCHERNIKOW REPRINTS, 1903)
3-CENTS, LITHOGRAPHED, PLATE ESSAY ON PROOF PAPER
USA, ESSAYS 188-E2b (scarlet) and 188-E2b (blue green)
(SCHERNIKOW REPRINTS, 1903)
12-CENTS, LITHOGRAPHED, PLATE ESSAY ON STAMP PAPER
WITH MARGIN INSCRIPTION "PRINTED BY PHILADELPHIA BANK NOTE COMPANY, PATENTED JUNE 16, 1876"
In the pop music world, "unreleased" tracks and demo recordings provide rare glimpses into the musician's creative process, revealing how ideas developed and transformed into the final release.
Similarly, stamp design essays provide tantalizing glimpses of "what could have been" in the philatelic world. They are often the evolutionary "missing-links" of philatelic design.
In the early 1900s, the archives of the Philadelphia Bank Note Company were sold in a bankruptcy sale. Among the items sold were the dies for the Philadelphia Bank Note Company's 1877 Essays.
The buyer of the dies was Ernest Schernikow, an officer of the Hamilton Bank Note Company. In 1903 the Hamilton Bank Note Companyy made reprints from the dies in as many as fifteen colors. It is believed that this was done to help recoup the $10,000.00 Schernikow paid for the effects of the Philadelphia Bank Note Company.
To me, these beautiful designs bridge the design aesthetic of the "Bank Note" issues of the 1870s with the classical baroque designs of the early 1900s, and foreshadow the Washington-Franklin regular issues that were to come in 1908.
