Lincoln stamp, United States of America was introduced in 1954. 4 cents Lincoln stamps is one of the most iconic ones. It ran from 1954 until 1968 and it featured President Lincoln’s face based on a portrait by American painter Douglas Volk. This stamp was necessary to pay for a letter sent from 1958 until 1963, when the postal rate rose to .05 dollars.
The 4 cent Lincoln stamp made its first appearance in 1953. While the domestic rate for letters was still only .03 dollars for U.S. first-class postage, sending a letter to Europe would cost you .04 dollars. That was the goal of the Lincoln stamps before 1958. In the following years, the rate for domestic postage rose to .04 dollars, making the 4-cent Lincoln stamp a necessity for everyone.
The stamp reached mass adoption in 1958, when first-class postal delivery prices rose to .04 dollars for domestic letters.
That is also the year two commemorative stamps featuring Abe appeared: the Lincoln and Douglas debate stamp and the sesquicentennial issue. They were issued to commemorate Lincoln’s birth 150 years prior (he was born in 1808), and both featured a unique design and color. The sesquicentennial issue used a different portrait that was more on the front and had a different color, blue. The debate stamp was issued to commemorate the 100 years from the Illinois debate between Lincoln and Douglas for a seat in the U.S. Senate.