British-born engraver Douglas S. Ronaldson (1805-1902) moved from the American Bank Note Company to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing around the time the Bureau had been assigned the task of creating and printing all United States stamps— that is, around 1894. He worked for the Bureau until his death at age 77. As an engraver for the National Bank Note Company, Ronaldson worked extensively on the 1869 Issue. He engraved six of the eleven Issue stamps. Note the clear similarity between the 10- and 30-cent stamps. Ronaldson was sole engraver for the entire 10-cent issue and responsible for the flags and lettering on the 30-cent issue.
This 30-cent stamp was the highest denomination bi-color stamp of the 1869 Issue to have one element inverted in printing. The appearance of the invert is far more striking when the flags are upside down. Similar to the 24-cent stamp, it typically paid the postage for large-weight letters sent domestically or for expensive, foreign-destination rates. The National Bank Note Company printed 244,110 stamps of the 30-cent issue.
Glossary
