It was intended to print the Trans-Mississippi issue with a black vignette and a frame in color. The bi-color idea had to be abandoned because of the fact that the Spanish American War, which broke out in April, 1898, necessitated the printing of enormous quantities of revenue stamps and the facilities of the Bureau were taxed to the utmost . The time and manpower needed for the printing of stamps in two colors could not be spared and it was necessary for the Bureau to abandon the proposed bi-color stamps in favor of stamps of single colors.

For the vignette was based on one of any woodcut engravings of Fremont raising the American flag in the Rocky Mountains during his 1842-1843 expedition.

John Charles Frémont (1813–90) was an American explorer and cartographer for the US Topographical Engineers who crossed Colorado on various expeditions. Between 1842 and 1853, Frémont led five western expeditions with numerous objectives. He was also involved in the Mexican-American War (1846–48) in California, became one of California’s first senators, ran for president in 1856, served as commander of the army’s Department of the West during the Civil War, and became very wealthy through speculation in railroad development, only to lose his property and savings..

The Fremont Expedition approaches the Rockies

A pane of #288. Each pane had 50 stamps, there were two panes to a sheet of 100 stamps.