US Stamp Designs That Never Saw The Light Of Day.

https://www.sheaff-ephemera.com/list/stamp-design/

Interesting read regarding some of the work of Richard Sheaff, who, as a Designer and later as the Art Director for USPS, designed over 500 Postage Stamps.
•

Thanks for sharing that uboatnut, very interesting. Too bad the engraving of Lincoln by Marshall never saw the light of day. Could have been a modern classic.

The ones I liked the most were:
first two Heroes of 2001 (yes, we had a semi-postal, but a regular issue for 2026 would be nice)
Cayenne/Coffee/Cloves
second 37c Angel
42c Flag & banner
37c gold Santa & Sleigh
37c Santa on roof
41c Flag & eagle
first two Prevent Forest fires
Those two flag were way more inspiring than the boring flags we have gotten in recent years.
There were others, but they were ones that already had a different design issued.

The USPS out to consider having a poll on some of them and let the public pick one or two to issue.

A big thank you for posting this. There were quite a few of these that, if issued, I would definitely purchase. My personal favorite was the Franklin bust. Again, thanks!!!

This was fascinating to see! There were definitely some I would buy if they were ever released, such as the birth month gemstones. I thought the found numbers theme was fun, but they seemed surprisingly quirky for a stamp theme, so I'm not surprised it never saw the light of day.

When I saw the Sweet Corn design, I thought wait, isn't that a success story? Goes to show some themes can be revived! Michael Doret, the designer, did a brief bit on it in his design portfolio: https://www.behance.net/gallery/228...Part-1-of-2. I wonder if there are any stamps with a similar design story. 12 years is quite a while.

Wow, that Violence Solves Nothing concept with the bullet holes is one of the most powerful images I have seen. In this day and age I think that would be an excellent stamp issue for the USPS.

I like a lot of them versus what has actually been produced. The Lincoln one and Franklin one noted by others above, the New Mexico and Arizona stamps (maybe because I live in AZ and always get a kick out of seeing saguaro), Malcolm X, Bill Mauldin, some of the flag stamps, the FDR, the Lincoln one with the quotes (if he really did say them), Cochise, and the WWI Veterans stamps in the smaller images. The Violence one with the bullet holes is indeed powerful, but I wonder whether folks might think it's a little too graphic and intense to actually use on letters.