65c US Stamp Baltimore Checkerspot Butterfly 2nd Ounce Rate

Newly announced by the US Postal Service for the 65c second ounce rate. Described as the Baltimore Checkerspot, the official insect of the State of Maryland:

Has anyone taken notice that the USPS has "quietly" removed this stamp from their USPS Store website? in fact, if you checkout Beyond the Perf and the link provided to "purchase" the stamps, it comes up as "PRODUCT IS NOT AVAILABLE":

http://beyondtheperf.com/stamp-rele...-checkerspot

Last week the stamp was noted on the USPS Shopping website as "discontinued" and this week it has been removed from the website altogether. It seems quite strange as stamps are typically available for up to a year from the date of issue.

Another interesting point is that there are three (3) different stamps that can be used for the 65c second ounce rate. The 65c Baltimore Checkerspot Butterfly (not currently available on USPS website) was issued in a quantity of only 15 million; the 65c Wedding Cake (still available) was issued in a quantity of 75 million; and the 65c Dogs at Work (still available) was issued in a quantity of 80 million.

Although the other stamps can certain take the place of the 65c Baltimore Checkerspot Butterfly, it will be interesting to see if this item will be available in the future or if demand has exceeded the relatively low quantity of stamps issued, in which case this stamp could become quite collectible due to its low volume printing and limited availability.

This is one stamp I have yet to find at my local post office as well and he's even sells the Weathervane stamps. I'll check again tomorrow.

I am really glad that I bought a sheet of these stamps a little while back from the USPS. I really like this stamp and would have been disappointed if I missed it.

I just found a couple of sheets of these stamps today at the Pownal, Vermont post office.

This stamp has "quietly" returned to the USPS store's website (in other words, it's again available from Stamp Fulfillment Services), presumably because an additional shipment was obtained.

https://store.usps.com/store/browse..._S_NewStamps

It will be interesting to see if this is simply an additional quantity of the same stamp or if the stamp has changed in any way (i.e. different plate number), although I suspect it was was just an additional shipment, as there were printing and distribution problems with a number of the new stamps that were issued earlier this year to accommodate the increased postal rates.