When Was The Last US Engraved Postage Stamp Issued

The artwork of the engraved postage stamp has all but dissappeared. We can find them by the hundreds or thousands in the front part of our albums but now, not so much. This is one of the primary reasons I stopped my collection at the year 2000, that and the cost of keeping it going.

I much prefer collecting the older issues where the image on the stamp was actually engraved by a person, showed a piece of history and was a pleasure to look at. I abhor the many "cartoon" stamps of this century and others that show just a minuscule of thought or talent. If not for actually paying a fee to post a letter, these are no more than labels by any definition.

When was the last engraved U.S. stamp actually produced for the Post Office? Or, do we still have one pop up every couple of years?

Art

The Inverted Jenny Souvenir Sheet is one of the most recent:

http://uspsstamps.com/stories/inverted-jenny

Of course, you can still buy from the USPS the $5 Washington/Jackson engraved stamp issued all the way back in 1994 (at almost 20 years old, it's the oldest stamp that you can still buy at face value from the USPS SFS).

The USPS 2005 Greta Garbo was an engraved stamp. Although, not a postage stamp the 2005 and 2006 were also engraved.

I thought that there was not a lot of talent,inspiration or imagination put in to the new stamp designs either until I watched the youtube video posted on this month stamp insider thread. I was impressed by the artist. (sorry I dont know how to link..lol) but it is sure worth a view.. but of course the end product is just not the same as the classics.

Sorry,the 2005 and 2006 I referred to above were the Federal Duck stamps, RW72 and RW73

The 2012 USPS Waves of Color were engraved.

But none of these were engraved by a person.

Building on Art's question, what was the last US stamp that was engraved by a person? I suspect it was back in the 1960s, possibly early 1970s.

Donald

Although it doesn't completely answer the question, consider this previous thread on the subject:

https://goscf.com/t/21361

Sorry, but the 2005 Greta Garbo stamp was personally engraved by Piotr Naszarkowski of Sweden. When I first met him in Washington, DC, I asked him to sign the "official" Postal News, May 9, 2006 announcing the stamp. Note he made a correction on my copy of the release before he personally signed it. He described at length his engraving techniques on the issue and personally signed a pane of 20 of the Greta Garbo stamps as well as the Federal Duck RW72b sheet let he engraved. In addition, when I met him again in 2006 he signed a few Garbo FDCs for me as well as a few RW73b's which he also engraved. We have been in touch ever since. I have collected every stamp he has engraved from his first stamp to present; most are from Sweden, a few Poland, Vatican City, Japan, etc.

Here are imiages of engraved stamps

Imiages of engraved RW72b and RW73b previously posted:

Here is a close up of engraved Garbo

The "other Swedish stamp" described can be seen on 1st FDC above, the bluish sketched silhouette stamp with "Greta" in the hair.

According to the USPS the 2013 Inverted Jenny was not engraved. Many of us were upset USPS did not elect to issue it as an engraved stamp _ a lot more would have been sold if it were.

The Scott New Updates column in Linn's described the inverted Jenny sheet as 'Lithographed and Engraved'.

I understand the 2013 Inverted Jenny use some sort of clone DNA type of method to clone the original die. Don't know if that is considered engraved, certainly it would not be in the classical since. Maybe this will shead some light for us:

http://www.1847usa.com/ArtOfLineEngraving.htm