U.S. 1904 Louisiana Purchase Expo stamp pictures William McKinley

Stamp Market Tips by Henry Gitner and Rick Miller

The recent narrowly unsuccessful assassination attempt on Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump (served 2017-21) put us in mind of another Republican president who was on the receiving end of an assassin’s bullet.

On April 30, 1904, the U.S. Post Office Department issued a set of five Louisiana Purchase Exposition stamps (Scott 323-327). The 5¢ dark blue stamp (326) commemorates William McKinley (1843-1901), the 25th president of the United States.

McKinley, the last U.S. president to serve in the Union Army in the Civil War, had recently begun his second term in the nation’s highest office when he was shot by an anarchist while visiting the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y. Shot twice in the abdomen at close range on Sept. 6, 1901, McKinley lingered until September 14 before succumbing to infection.

McKinley was one of four world leaders assassinated around the turn of the 20th century. The others were King Umberto I of Italy, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, and President Sadi Carnot of France.

Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance’s beard reminds us that McKinley was the first clean-shaven Republican president. All previous Republican chief executives had some sort of facial hair while in office.

The Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps and Covers values the 5¢ President McKinley stamp in very fine grade at $70 in unused, hinged condition and $180 in mint, never-hinged condition. A used example is valued at $22.50. The stamp is a good buy at around 80 percent of Scott U.S. Specialized catalog values. Stamps in lower grades sell for considerably less.

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