During his tenure as superintendent of the pictorial department at the American Bank Note Company, Alfred Jones engraved the portrait of Abraham Lincoln for the 4-cent stamp of the 1890-1893 Issue. Born in Great Britain, Jones became an engraver for the Philadelphia printing firm Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Edson soon after immigrating to the United States. During the mid-1850s, the renowned portrait engraver operated his own firm, which later merged with the ABNCo.
The 4-cent Lincoln was issued on June 2, 1890, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the surrender of the last major Confederate army. [Read more about this in the discussion of the 5-cent Grant issue.] The 4-cent stamp would have been used to pay either the double-weight first-class rate or, in combination with other denominations, higher mail rates. American Bank Note Company printed approximately 66,759,475 of these 4-cent stamps.
