About This Stamp
The 5-dollar stamp of the Prominent Americans series features John Bassett Moore (1860–1947). Moore, a jurist and diplomat, was a renowned authority on international law. He was admitted to the Delaware bar in 1883. After clerking at the U.S. Department of State, he became assistant secretary of state. In 1891 he accepted a full professorship of international law at Columbia University, a position he held until 1924. Moore became a government advisor on international commissions and inter-American conferences. He represented the United States as a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague from 1912 until 1938 and served as a judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice (the World Court) from 1921 until 1928.
The 5-dollar gray black Moore stamp was issued in Moore's birthplace, Smyrna, Delaware, on December 3, 1966. The sheet stamp was printed from plates of 400 and sold in panes of 100 stamps with gauge 11 x 10.5 perforations. The stamp was designed by Thomas Laufer based on a photograph that appeared in the September 1966 issue of the American Bar Association Journal. Arthur W. Dintaman engraved the vignette, and William R. Burnell engraved the lettering. John Bassett Moore had never before appeared on a U.S. postage stamp.
The 5-dollar stamp was used to pay high priority and express mail rates and business reply postage and, with other denominations, to pay existing postal rates and fees.