2013 USPS Issues... News? Thoughts? Opinions?

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The U.S. Postal Service proudly honors inspiring musician Ray Charles with a stamp, one of several that inaugurates the Music Icons series. This extraordinary composer, singer, and pianist, blind since childhood, went beyond category, blending blues, gospel, country, jazz, and soul music in a unique and highly influential pop music style. His many hits included "I've Got a Woman," "Georgia on My Mind," and "I Can't Stop Loving You."

The stamp art features an image of Charles, taken later in his career, by photographer Yves Carrère. The stamp sheet was designed to evoke the appearance of a 45 rpm single peeking out of a record sleeve above the stamps themselves. On the reverse side, the sheet includes a larger version of the photograph featured in the stamp art as well as the logo for the Music Icons series.

Looking back over the course of his long career, there seemed to be little Charles couldn't do. His work spanned almost the entire breadth of American music and brought him 17 Grammy Awards, plus an award for lifetime achievement in 1987. His many other prizes include the National Medal of Arts, awarded in 1993, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 1986. That same year, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He performed at the White House many times for several different presidents.

Art director Ethel Kessler worked on the stamp sheet with designer Neal Ashby. The Ray Charles stamp is being issued as a Forever® stamp. Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce rate.

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Flowers are among the most popular subjects on stamps, and the U.S. Postal Service continues its tradition of beautiful issuances with Vintage Seed Packets.

From hand-tinted lithographs in the early 1800s to modern photography, images of floral perfection have adorned flower seed packets for more than a hundred years. The stamp art features ten photographs of antique seed packets (printed between 1910 to 1920), cropped to highlight their beautiful floral detail.

Each of the stamps depicts the colorful blossoms of one kind of flower—cosmos, digitalis, pinks, primrose, calendula, aster, linum, alyssum, phlox, and zinnia. Above each illustration in bold capital letters is the name of the flower depicted.

Art director Antonio Alcalá designed the stamp booklet.

The Vintage Seed Packets stamps are being issued as Forever® stamps. Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce rate.

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"The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes," social activist Helen Keller wrote in 1908, "but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker." The Made in America: Building a Nation stamps honor the courageous workers who helped build our country.

The sheet features 12 stamps in three rows of four. Eleven of the 12 stamp images were taken by photographer Lewis Hine, a chronicler of early 20th-century industry.

In the top row are an airplane maker, a derrick man on the Empire State Building, a millinery apprentice, and a man on a hoisting ball on the Empire State Building. In the middle row are a linotyper in a publishing house, a welder on the Empire State Building, a coal miner, and riveters on the Empire State Building. (The coal miner stamp is the only one of the 12 that does not feature a Hine photograph. The image is from the Kansas Historical Society.) In the bottom row are a powerhouse mechanic, a railroad track walker, a textile worker, and a man guiding a beam on the Empire State Building.

There are five different sheets available. Each one contains the same stamps, but is anchored by a different selvage photograph. Three of the five selvage photographs were taken by Hine. The Hine images include two Empire State Building iron workers and a General Electric worker measuring the bearings in a casting. The fourth selvage photograph is the same image of the coal miner that appears in the stamp pane. The final selvage photograph, taken by Margaret Bourke-White, depicts a female welder.

Derry Noyes was the project's art director and designer. The Made in America: Building a Nation stamps are being issued as Forever® stamps in self-adhesive sheets of 12. Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce rate.

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An interesting question was asked on USPS Facebook: I wonder if any of the pictured individuals are still living? Not likely, but it would certainly be interesting if it were later found out to be true.