A (2014?) 46-Cent Stamp That Was Never Issued

Hmmm...the US Postal Service erroneously posted this stamp image when referring to the recent Red, White and Blue Coil. Obviously, it was never issued as a 46-cent stamp, but is, in fact, a "Forever" stamp currently valued at 49-cents each:



Its fun to look at "what might have been"...even though it was never issued this way. (It is also obvious the planning for this issue must have been in the works for awhile.)

Anyway, the stamp design was probably messed up because the USPS Store's website has just changed its format to a more "user friendly" environment as shown here:

https://store.usps.com/store/browse...egoryNavIds=

Not only do they have the denomination wrong, but they fail to show that the stamps have gaps between them on the backing paper.

You should order it as shown and make sure that they send you the ones shown in the picture or else it's false advertisement or bait and switch. However, if they charge you 0.46 for the stamps and send you 0.49 cent stamps, would you really complain? Why do they have a listing for it at $4,900.00 on there unless it's for 10,000 of them? What's the story about this one?

That's exactly right. They are issued only in coils of 10,000 which, of course, would be used in machines operated by high volume mailers. The USPS has offered them in strips of 25 (w/plate number) or two (2) strips of 10 (w/o plate number) to meet collector demand that won't be buying the large volume coils.




The 46-cent denominated "Patriotic Star" stamp was issued on 03/19/2013 in both 3K and 10K coils (again destined for use by large volume mailers) and is Scott #4749. (The Scott Catalog doesn't differentiate the 3K v. 10K coils with a different Scott Catalog number, because the face of the stamps are identical.) For those who care about the different sized coils, you can collect them in strips with backnumbers on the reverse that will identify whether or not they came from the 3K or 10K coil. The stamp is still available from the USPS in smaller strips for collectors.