Inverted Jenny Flies Again

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Director of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum Allen Kane and USPS Director of Stamp Services and Corporate Licensing Susan McGowan unveiled the preliminary design for an Inverted Jenny stamp at the American Philatelic 'AmeriStamp Expo' stamp being held in Louisville, Kentucky according to an announcement by the Smithsonian.

The announcement goes on to say, "The preliminary design includes replicas of America's most famous stamp and one of the world's most famous errors. The margins of the stamp sheet feature images related to the 24-cent Curtiss Jenny stamp and the 1918 inaugural airmail service, including pilot Major Reuben Fleet of the Army Air Corps and the Washington DC - Philadelphia - New York airmail flight route. In the upper left corner is the main post office in Washington, DC, at the time, which would process airmail and currently houses the National Postal Museum."

The new stamp sheet will be issued on Sept. 22, opening day of the National Postal Museum's William H. Gross Stamp Gallery. The Gross Stamp Gallery will be the world's largest stamp gallery. A block of four of the original 1918 Inverted Jenny will be on permanent display in the Gallery.

For more on the story behind the Inverted Jenny error, click here. 

New York Apple on New 33c Stamp

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Produce News reports, "The office staff of the New York Apple Association in Fishers, NY, was bubbling with excitement on Jan. 17 when the U.S. Postal Service notified them that the Northern Spy apple, an older but beloved cooking apple, was chosen as one of four U.S. apples to represent a new postcard [rate] stamp collection."

Molly Golden, director of marketing for the NYAA, is quoted in the piece as saying, " "We were notified that this classic New York apple would be among the four postcard stamps that form the collection. More than 100 apple varieties are produced for commercial sale in the United States, so this is quite an honor. To celebrate, we suggest consumers, 'bake a pie with Spies,' and any other great New York apple variety."

Other apple varieties that complete the set are the Golden Delicious, the Baldwin and the Granny Smith.

To read the entire article, click here.

Do We Really Want to Live Without the Post Office?

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Reporter Jesse Lichtenstein writes in February's Esquire magazine. "The postal service is not a federal agency. It does not cost taxpayers a dollar. It loses money only because Congress mandates that it do so. What it is is a miracle of high technology and human touch. It's what binds us together as a country."

In the article "Do We Really Want to Live Without the Post Office?," Lichtenstein points out, "Today the postal service has a network that stretches across America: 461 distribution centers, 32,000 post offices, and 213,000 vehicles, the largest civilian fleet in the world. Trucks carrying mail log 1.2 billion miles a year. The postal service handles almost half of the entire planet's mail. It can physically connect any American to any other American in 3.7 million square miles of territory in a few days, often overnight: a vast lattice of veins and arteries and capillaries designed to circulate the American lifeblood of commerce and information and human contact."

"On October 1, the postal service defaulted on its second $5.5 billion health-care payment for the year. Around the same time, it reached its federal debt limit, meaning it can no longer borrow any money" Lichtenstein says.

He quotes USPS CFO Joseph Corbett as saying, "...if Congress does nothing, the best-case scenario is that the postal service has enough money to last until October 2013. After that, it will be unable to pay employees or purchase gas or keep the lights on in its sorting facilities. It will be no more."

To read the entire article, click here.

Postage Rates Go Up and Parcel Post Gets a Name Change

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Starting today, the U.S. Postal Service® will implement a postage rate increase for all mail classes including First Class Mail®, Priority Mail and Express Mail along with many special services.

First Class Letters (1 oz.) will increase by one cent to $0.46 from $0.45. Each additional ounce will cost an extra $0.20 (no change).

Postcard rates will increase by one cent to $0.33 from $0.32

Parcel Post is being renamed Standard Post and will only be available for purchase at the Post Office.

A round "Global Forever Stamp" (shown above) is also being introduced to send a one ounce letter or postcard to any country in the world for $1.10.

For more information, click here.

USPS Offers Special Valentine's Day postmarks

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ABC TV's New York affiliate is reporting can get your cards postmarked from towns like Beauty, Kentucky; Bliss, New York; Hartsville, Tennessee; Loveland, Colorado; Paradise, Pennsylvania; Lovely, Kentucky; or Valentine, Nebraska.

It goes on to say, "For those of you who have the opposite message to send, you can have the cards postmarked from places like Sour Lake, Texas; Embarrass, Minnesota; Independence, California; Broken Arrow, Oklahoma; Diablo, California; or even Coward, South Carolina."

According to the report, "If you want to add any of these extra sentiments to their greeting cards, you can simply address the card to that special person, affix a First-Class Mail postage stamp and put it into a larger envelope, also with postage, address it to "Valentine's Day Postmark, Postmaster," and then add any of the locations listed above to get that town's postmark."

In order to make sure the greeting cards receive the special postmark and are delivered in time for Valentine's Day, requests should be sent to the cities above by Feb. 5.

To get the appropriate ZIP codes, click here. 

New American Philatelic Research Library Online Exhibits

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The American Philatelic Research Library (APRL) has added some new exhibits to their online collection.

These include:

• British East Africa, the stamps and their usage, 1890-1902 by George T. Krieger (Grand and Gold, Houston 2011)
• Haiti’s 1c Royal Palm of 1892 by Peter C. Jeannopoulos
• Indian Post Office in Zanzibar 1878-1895 by Geoge T. Krieger (Gold, Penpex 2006)
• Uganda on British East Africa by George T. Krieger (Gold and Grand, NY Mega Stamp Show 2007; Gold and Grand, Houston 2004)

Click here to browse the rest of their growing collection on our website

Click here to search the APRL library catalog for exhibits available for loan.

If you would like to make a copy of your exhibit available on our website, click here.

Rosa Parks to Get a Stamp

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USPS has announced that civil rights champion Rosa Parks will be honored with a stamp sometime next year.

According to a USPS press release, "In 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks courageously refused to give up her seat on a municipal bus to a white man, defying the discriminatory laws of the time. The U.S. Postal Service is proud to honor the life of this extraordinary American activist who became an iconic figure in the civil rights movement."

It goes on to say, "The stamp art, a gouache painting on illustration board, is a portrait of Parks emphasizing her quiet strength. A 1950s photograph served as the basis for the stamp portrait. Artist Thomas Blackshear II created an original painting for the stamp, which was designed by art director Derry Noyes."

Parks died in 2005.

Click here for more on Rosa Parks.