Miles Davis & Edith Piaf Stamps 2012 Joint Issue With France

Does anyone have further information on the above "Joint Issue with France" other than what is outlined in the news article linked below?

http://www.thetelegraph.com/news/da...s-stamp.html

According to jointstampissues.net it is planned for June.

[edit: They are pictured on page 10 of the new (Feb 6th) Linn's.]

I'm obviously turning into a curmudgeon, so pardon the rantings of an old man, but I don't get that rationale of putting non-Americans with dubious connections to the US and our values on US stamps. Now before you think I've gone totally over the edge, I have no complaints with world class heroes like Churchill, Dag Hammerskjold, Mother Teresa, Lafayette, Kosciusko, Sun Yat-Sen, Copernicus, Shakespeare, Dante, Martin Luther, Gutenburg, Raoul Wallenberg, and all those personages in the Champions of Liberty, etc. However, I don't understand why Edith Piaf was even considered. Undeniably a fantastic singer - great voice; great songs. But aside from her appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, I don't see the connection. Some of the biographic material on the web even suggests that she may have collaborated with the Germans during WWII. This choice on the part of the advisory group makes no more sense to me than the 2001 Freda Kahlo stamp. I await your lambasting.

But as a joint issue, it makes a bit more sense...Americans would see her as an iconic French performer...probably the iconic French performer, and Miles Davis was huge in Europe.

The French probably enjoy being involved in picking an American icon who means more to them than to most Americans. (Don't get me wrong, I have pretty much everything he released through about 1964.)

Designs for this se-tenant issue were just posted on USPS Facebook today. Stamps are scheduled for a June issue date.

I'm not excited about the designs, colors are too dark to make for an attractive looking stamp for everyday mail...but that's just my opinion.

Colors and designs are virtually identical to the French half of the issue. No surprise there. Piaf is always associated with a black dress. The Davis image does seem to really catch the strength and energy of his music.

Are there on-line images of the French version of these stamps? I looked but couldn't seem to find it posted.

I think they might actually "pop" on a white envelope.

I could pick nits, but they are better than many...

They definitely honor dead people...

Rather different to the earlier French stamp (1990) for Edith Piaf:

http://www.stampcollectingblog.com/...af-stamp.jpg

No matter how many people may like/dislike the personalities or the design of these new stamps, a quick web search reveals that this is a news item that is quickly taking hold in all of the major music trade publications. Normally, stamps would never be given a place in these publications, so this type of media hype is exactly what the US Postal Service is hoping for.

Maybe it won't make stamp collectors out of the majority of these trade publication readers, but just think of all of the revenue that will be generated by non-collectors who will buy some of these stamps only because it has some sentimental value to their genre of music.

It will be interesting to see just how popular this issue is going to be with the general public.

Here's the first image I've seen of the entire sheetlet of stamps for the Miles Davis & Edith Piaf Issue:



USPS Facebook is currently carrying a story on the designer of this stamp issue and since an image of the entire sheetlet was included, I decided to post it here, too.

That isn't a bad design... photos instead of bad drawings, and stark B&W imagery. I didn't know Ms Piaf was big here... I wouldn't be suprised if Davis was big there. The Frence seem top like jazz.

It has just been announced by the USPS that tomorrow's (06/12/2012) issuance of the Miles Davis & Edith Piaf stamps will be THE FIRST US STAMP PANE EVER to include a QR Code on the back of the stamp where Smartphone users can access information, photographs, music and even a USPS link to buy related philatelic products.




Here's a link to that announcement (it has also been published on USPS Facebook about a hour ago):

https://liteblue.usps.gov/news/link...news12s2.htm

It is particularly interesting that this detail had not been mentioned prior to this afternoon on any USPS site, not had it been included in the official stamp announcement detail as published in the Postal Bulletin.

It seems this is a last minute change and yet another "first" for a US Stamp issue.

I picked up the Miles Davis/Edith Piaf stamps today. The reverse has the QR Code as shown:



In my opinion, the stamps are way too dark in color and it occurs to me that cancelled stamps may be hard to identify as such (potentially leading to illegal reuse?).

I know true collectors will say that you must collect the entire pane, but for those holdout plate block collectors, how would one collect them in this format, as a plate block of 3 or a plate block of 5 (as shown)?

I always address a couple of covers to myself as an "unofficial" first day of issue postmark on new commemorative issues. One cover is usually sufficient, but I do send two most of the time, and here's the reason why ... a perfect example of how the USPS lost another 45 cents in revenue due to their failure to postmark both covers:



I guess I can always recover the stamp from the uncancelled cover for use on another piece of mail.