USPS reveals 2017 U.S. stamp subjects

By Michael Baadke

The United States Postal Service has revealed designs for several U.S. stamps that will be issued in 2017.

The stamp plans were disclosed with little fanfare through an unannounced e-mail distributed to press outlets on Sept. 20.

A forever stamp honoring President John F. Kennedy on his birth centenary is among the 13 stamps or stamp sets and one stamped envelope listed in a press release on the Postal Service website.

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Some subjects are familiar continuations of themes seen in years past, including the Lunar New Year and Love series, a Flag stamp, and four stamps picturing garden flowers.

Breaking down the newly revealed 2017 U.S. stamps, from Kennedy to the queen conch: Linn's Stamp News has had time to look over each of the products and put together an item-by-item breakdown of the 2017 lineup.

Others are unexpected commemorations, including a forever stamp for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened this week on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Stamps are also planned showing posters of the Work Projects Administration (a set of 10), sharks (a set of five), foods of Latin America and the Caribbean (a set of six), seashells (a set of four), plus single stamps honoring longtime Notre Dame President Father Theodore M. Hesburgh (1917-2015), and Uncle Sam’s symbolic hat on an additional-ounce rate stamp.

A new nonmachineable rate stamp for 2017 will feature the California Dogface Butterfly, and the imprinted franking on a forever stamped envelope will depict the barn swallow.

The Kennedy commemoration is printed in black and white using a photograph taken by Ted Spiegel in 1960. The stamp will be the fourth issued by the United States to pay tribute to the nation’s 35th president, who was assassinated in 1963. It follows the 5¢ memorial stamp issued May 29, 1964 (Scott 1246), the 13¢ definitive issued May 29, 1967 (1287), and the 22¢ commemorative issued May 22, 1986, as part of the Ameripex Presidential set (2219h).