USPS celebrates 250 years with storyboard pane July 23 in nation’s capital

By Scott Tiffney

A pane of 20 interconnected United States “250 Years of Delivering” forever stamps illustrating an aerial view of a dedicated postal carrier on her route through a bustling town in all four seasons will be issued July 23 in Washington, DC.

Created by comic artist Chris Ware and co-designed with USPS art director Antonio Alcala, the pane is laid out in four rows of five stamps and commemorates 250 years of delivering mail by the nation’s postal service while highlighting the organization’s mission of “connecting individuals, communities and businesses through an ongoing exchange of ideas, information and goods … In snow, rain, heat and gloom of night, USPS reliably reaches us where we live and work,” according to a Postal Service news release.

Each of the new nondenominated (78¢) 250 Years of Delivering stamps features a single scene of sequential art “telling the story of a mail carrier’s journey as she walks her daily route” said the Postal Service, as “the story progresses through a year’s four seasons, from top-left to bottom-right.”

In a June 23 media advisory, the USPS said the first-day ceremony will be held at noon Eastern Daylight Time at USPS headquarters, 475 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Washington, DC. The ceremony is free to attend and will also include the release of the 32-page “Putting a Stamp on the American Experience” prestige booklet that features popular subjects commemorated by the U.S. stamp program. The booklet will include two sheets of a new nondenominated (78¢) stamp featuring the first postmaster general, Benjamin Franklin.

To register for the ceremony, visit the Postal Service online. Each attendee may include up to four additional guests, the USPS said.

Each stamp in the pane of 20 presents a snapshot of a different time and place experienced by the postal carrier as she walks with her mail cart along her route delivering mail to customers in a busy town. …

Ashton Potter (USA) Ltd., one of two contract printers for the USPS, printed the new forever stamps in a quantity of 25 million stamps that were finished into 1.25 million panes of 20.

A plate number consisting of a “P” followed by four single digits is printed in the bottom two corners of the pane. Each digit represents one of the colors used to print the stamp: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. …

Two pictorial first-day cancels for the 250 Years of Delivering stamps are being offered by the Postal Service, one in black and the other in color. The black postmark is applied free, up to a quantity of 50, to most collector-submitted covers. There is a 5¢ charge for each additional postmark over 50.

The black postmark features a piece of paper, sticking up from an opened envelope, with “First Day of Issue” above “250 YEARS of DELIVERING” in bold text underneath. Further date and location details are at the bottom of the cancel.

The color postmark features “250 YEARS” in red text above “OF DELIVERING” in blue with “First Day of Issue” underneath, also in blue, between a horizontal red line above and blue line below. To the right is an illustration of the mail carrier shown on the pane, with her mail cart, placing mail in a mailbox. Date and location details are in blue at the bottom of the cancel.

The color postmark can be obtained by collectors on envelopes made from laser-safe paper. There is an order minimum of 10 envelopes with a fee of 50¢ per postmark. The Postal Bulletin provides additional ordering information. Both postmarks are also applied to first-day covers manufactured and sold by the Postal Service.

All requests for the 250 Years of Delivering first-day cancels must be postmarked by Nov. 23.

Further 250 Years of Delivering issue products are available from the online USPS postal store.

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