Living Persons Now Allowed On US Stamps

I apologize if I missed this discussion here already (been busy), but cover story in Oct. 12 Linn's Stamp News indicates that new rules from Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee have removed wording that prevented living persons from being honored on new U.S. stamps.

Linn's interviews with USPS folks, including director of Stamp Services, confirmed that this means living persons will be considered.

Yikes - this is a horrid and unneeded step ... went down this road 15 years ago and most people with good sense hated it, and USPS rolled it back. (Still hate it.)

Please weigh in. (Why does this seem politically motivated to serve someone who likes his name on everything from monuments to money to Passports to Bibles?)

Many will welcome a Sydney Sweeney stamp.

The motivation could be purely to increase sales. Remember the Elvis stamp of the 1990s?

Countless past stamps have been politically motivated, so I don't see how that's relevant, even though you cite no evidence of a political motive. FDR, for example, pressed the POD multiple times to issue stamps for people or events he favored.

I can't imagine anyone even pretending that this is not a deliberate idea for one person and one person only. Sure, Roosevelt asked for it, but he never got it. There have been some accidental occasions, particularly the army and navy issues after WWII, but this is obvious to everyone, even those who pretend it is not.

Zzzzzzzzzz

As I said........

BHC06, if you're wondering what colour the stamp's going to be.

Excuse me, but POTUS Trump will appear on a US Stamp just like every other POTUS without this change. I believe this as to be a marketing method to increase sales of new issues. The Star Wars stamps sold well and while showing "mythical character," it was also done with Star Trek, and in both cases the underlying human actors being honored were and are well known.

It will be interesting to see who appears, Cher, Taylor Kelsey, Captain Smit Machchhar, Tyler James Robinson, Luigi Mangione, Dr. Fauci, living Metal of Honor Recipients, Sandy Koufax, the William sisters, US based Nobel Laureates or ???

In theory he would appear one year after he dies. But it is not guaranteed; there is no law that states it must happen. It is traditional, and likely to occur, however. But living people is a bad idea anyway.

Some guy with a tattoo from Maine.

Living People were also allowed on CVP/PCP from stamps.com etc.

I can see the political lines forming with some already sassing everyone for wanting to hold the line at no living people on stamps which has been the standard for, what? 150 years now? But sure, put Trump on a stamp while he's in office. Everyone other rule or constitutional norm is now in the trash, so why not do that, as well? Put him on the dollar bill, too, and remove George Washington. We've already seen plans for Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill dropped -- which was surely a political move.

One reason for the U.S. not issuing stamps honoring living people is that until someone dies it's not always clear what their actual legacy will be. Take Cesar Chavez who later was found to have sexually assaulted women despite his otherwise well-respected record fighting for the rights of poor field workers. There is a 2003 U.S. commemorative honoring him, so a short waiting period would not have mattered, but to some it may now seem a bit depressing that a sexual predator was honored at all. I won't make the obvious connection with President Trump.

A second reason is that issuing stamps for living people can easily become political propaganda which is why so many totalitarian societies' stamps are filled with images of Francisco Franco, Adolf Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mao, and other worthless people. It's a form of propaganda which U.S. stamps have wisely stayed away from by making it unacceptable for any current administration to celebrate itself that way.

As for FDR, I've always thought he was too involved with stamp issuing, but it was mostly suggesting subjects for stamps or sketching out possible designs. It was because he liked stamps so much, being a stamp collector, that this seemed acceptable. I don't think he ever got a stamp issued honoring himself. That was not until after he had died, a decision made by others -- the standard we've always followed. So citing FDR seems like a pretty weak argument.

Even Nixon who was driven out of office by bipartisan agreement for his covering up his own crimes got a stamp, so of course Donald Trump will eventually get one. That's inevitable since we honor all presidents, both the good and the awful. Even James Buchanan (1856-61)who fiddled while the Union collapsed is on a stamp or two. Andrew Johnson (1865-69), as scurrilous a racist as there ever was who did everything he could to create a segregated America and undermine Reconstruction efforts over and over again is on some stamps. Herbert Hoover got a stamp despite the awfulness of 1930-33. We may not have Hitlers or other literal mass murderers on our stamps, but we do have a few miserable people on them.

I'd never want living people honored on our stamps. It's too risky, too likely to be politically-motivated, and it's our tradition to hold off until we're sure someone deserves to be honored. We used to be better than that, but I'm not sure we are anymore. It really is the principle of the thing. I've always felt it smells bad when countries do that sort of thing. We love to say we're a better country, but then we don't act that way.I have no idea what Elvis has to do with this?

When speaking of scurrilous, you left out the former Confederates who were put on stamps in the 20th century, a political move if ever there was one.