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Merson series of French stamps
The Merson stamps of France were first issued on 4 December 1900 and were gradually replaced from 1929 by a series of 'sites and monuments' stamps, although the design was used used from 1931 to 1935 for the Assurance Sociales.

Origin
In 1894 a competition was held to find a design for a stamp to replce the type Sage stamps with a design using republican symbols. The competition was sponsored by the Chamber of Deputies with a jury of prominent artists. About 684 designs were submitted and displayed from 7 to 12 May 1894 at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris. However, the competition was not well supported by the press and was eventually cancelled. No prize was awarded by five Honorable Mentions were awarded for Dupuis, Mouchon, Lecheveral, Forget and Burgoin. Merson was not directly involved although it is understood that Burgoin received help from him.

There were continuing attempts to produce a new design despite the French postal authoroty's opposition, mainly on the work required to change the dies and plates both for France and the French Post Offices Abroad. In 1895 the Minister of Posts asked a well-known artist, Grasset, to design a new stamp but by the time he had submitted his deisgn there was a new minister who did not like the design and it was only used for Indo-China in 1904. In December 1898 the postal technical committee decided to replace the Sage type stamps with three designs. Low vales were to be designed by Blanc, medium values to Mouchon and the high values to Merson.

Nicolas Luc-Oliver Merson
Merson was born on 21 May 1846 in Paris and attended the Ecole des Arts Decorátifs and the Ecole des Beaux Arts. In 1860 he won the Prix de Rome; in 1892 he became a member of the Institute and in1906 became Professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He was became a Commandeur de la Légion d'Honneur and died on 13 November 1920 in Paris.