As a postal clerk in a foreign country it was difficult to ascertain the value of the foreign countries stamp. In order to assist the Universal Postal Union (UPU) requested all its member countries to standardise the colors of each value. So a local standard letter rate would be red, a standard overseas rate blue, etc etc. To confirm with the correct color for the 1¢ it was changed from blue to green.

Previous versions of Franklins portrait (shown left) on the 1¢ stamp had Franklin face portray an alert friendly expression. This was the principle reason that this design (shown right) was disliked by the general public. The NY Times said that Franklin's face had 'entirely altered his expression and making him resemble a putty-faced personification of senility'.

279a
Vertical watermark, only four examples known. Three off cover and one on cover (shown below)

Image supplied by courtesy of Richard Babcock