Heritage Breeds voted overall favorite in Linn’s 2021 U.S. stamp poll

By Charles Snee

Animals on stamps have long been a topical favorite for stamp collectors. So it’s not too surprising that the 10 nondenominated (55¢) commemorative forever stamps featuring 10 different American heritage breeds were selected by Linn’s Stamp News readers as the overall favorite United States 2021 stamp issue

The 2021 Linn’s U.S. Stamp Popularity Poll was introduced in the Dec. 20, 2021, issue. A two-page magazine spread illustrated all of the stamps issued during the calendar year.

Readers voted online and by postal mail, with ballots published each week in Linn’s through the Feb. 28 issue.

Readers of all ages mailed in a total of 950 ballots in the 2021 stamp poll. This total is approximately 23 percent more than the 771 mail-in ballots that were cast in the 2020 poll. Readers cast 1,081 ballots by mail in the 2019 poll.

Hundreds of online voters also participated via Linns.com, bringing the total of mail-in and online votes to 1,905. The votes from online and mail-in ballots were combined to calculate this year’s winners.

The Heritage Breeds stamps were officially issued May 17, 2021, at George Washington’s Mount Vernon in Mount Vernon, Va.

The animals shown are the mulefoot hog, Wyandotte chicken, milking Devon cow, Narragansett turkey, American mammoth jackstock donkey, cotton patch goose, San Clemente Island goat, American cream draft horse, Cayuga duck and Barbados blackbelly sheep. The designs are based on photographs by Aliza Eliazarov.

These animals have characteristics that link them to American farm animals from the nation’s early years.

Linn’s U.S. Stamp Popularity Poll, which began in 1948, is intended as an entertaining and fun way for readers to voice their opinions about the U.S. stamp program. When the poll was first conducted, the categories consisted only of best stamp and worst stamp.

The poll is neither scientific nor statistically valid.

To read the rest of this article and review the tables detailing how readers voted in the various categories, subscribe to Linn’s Stamp News.

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