The Twenty-two-cent Prexie
Grover Cleveland has the distinction of being the only United States President to serve two non-consecutive terms. He was the twenty-second and twenty-fourth president, which produced a dilemma for the creators of the 1938 Presidential Series. The solution was to make his stamp the last of those which correlated the numerical order of the Presidency with the denomination of the stamp.
Cleveland's portrait on the twenty-two-cent value of the Prexies was taken from a medal furnished by the United States Mint. Twenty-two-cent stamps were issued in sheet format only. They were first released on November 22, 1938, with a total of 49,878,000 being issued through 1956.
There were a number of possible uses of a solo twenty-two-cent Prexie, but in most cases a combination of smaller denomination stamps was used instead. A double-weight, registered local letter at a carrier post office with return receipt requested cost twenty-two cents from mid 1933 until early 1944. The same charge would result from a registered local letter with third step indemnity at a carrier post office during the same period. And one of the most commonly found uses was for first class with the eighteen-cent registration fee plus one cent for excess value.
Another area where solo twenty-two-cent Prexies were used is special delivery mail. A special delivery postcard cost that much from 1952 to the middle of 1957, and when sent to Canada, from late 1931 until mid 1939, and again from 1952 to mid 1957. There were other periods where a special delivery postcard to Mexico and other PUAS countries cost the same.
Other solo uses involve third class COD mail, third class insured mail and some fourth class charges. Foreign uses would have been surface to London and then air to Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika or Zanzibar before mid 1939.