Toronto subway system featured on new stamp

Late last month, 50 years after Canada's first subway opened, Canada Post released a set of four new 49-cent stamps commemorating Canadian urban transit and light rail trains.

Highlighting the stamp set is one featuring Toronto's own subway system.

The new set of four public transit stamps is all about movement.

The stamps depict the country's four largest subway or light rail systems: Toronto's subway, Vancouver's TransLink SkyTrain, Montreal's Metro and Calgary's CTrain.

Each stamp features three trains, one moving left, one to the right and one stopped with passengers about to board.

When duplicate stamps are placed side by side, or viewed on an uncut sheet of stamps, the trains' movement seems to quicken, running continually like the real thing.

THESTAR.COM
April 27, 2004

Stamp honors Army Cadets

Canada Post marked the Royal Canadian Army Cadets' 125th anniversary this year at a special regional commemorative stamp launch in Regina.

The Canadian cadet organization is the largest federally sponsored youth program in Canada.

It is a national program for young Canadians aged 12 to 18 with an interest in participating in a variety of challenging activities and learning valuable life and work skills such as teamwork, leadership, public speaking and time management.

About 20,000 youth, who are enrolled as Army Cadets in more than 450 corps across the nation, will be celebrating the organization's 125th anniversary this year.

The stamp, a celebration of youth designed by Andre Perro of Smith-Boake Designwerke Inc. of Toronto, incorporates silhouettes taken from actual photos of cadets in three major fields of activity: citizenship (flag), adventure training (abseiling/rock climbing) and music.

Colors used in the stamp include the red of the RCAC insignia and the four skill badge colors of green, red, silver and gold.

CANADA.COM
April 23, 2004

Maltapost issues 16-stamp sheetlet on mammals and reptiles

The latest sixteen-stamp sheetlet to be issued by Maltapost - the fifth in the series - is a sheetlet showing a selection of mammals and reptiles found in the Maltese Islands.

The mammals and reptiles depicted on the sheetlet have been drawn by Andrew Micallef, who has also given philatelists similar sheetlets including the very popular Birds of Malta (June 2001) and the August 1999 issue Fauna of the Mediterranean Sea, besides last year's equally popular Sea Shells.

It is worth noting that all the reptiles and indigenous mammals found in the Maltese Islands have been legally protected since 1992. This applies to both terrestrial and marine species. This in effect means that it is illegal to pursue, catch or try to catch, kill or try to kill, possess, sell by any means, exchange, import or export living or dead specimens or part of the species which are protected.

DI-VE.COM
April 20, 2004

Pink Panther composer honored with stamp

A postage stamp honoring composer Henry Mancini premiered today in Los Angeles.

Mancini wrote the music for the movie "The Pink Panther." The brightly colored feline lurks in a corner of the stamp, which carries an image of Mancini conducting.

Postmaster General John Potter says Mancini set the standard -- in film, television and concert halls around the world.

Formal first day of issue ceremonies for the 37-cent stamp were held in Los Angeles.

Mancini is known for his television theme songs and movie scores. Ķe composed "Moon River" for the film "Breakfast at Tiffany's," as well as the themes for "Peter Gunn" and "Days of Wine and Roses."

NBC4.TV
April 13, 2004

Lewis and Clark begin a new journey on commemorative stamps

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, the leaders of the 1804-1806 Lewis and Clark expedition, will begin a new journey May 14 when the U.S. Postal Service issues three commemorative postage stamps honoring each adventurer and their joint command to map and explore the lands west of the Mississippi. The official first day of issue ceremony for the Lewis and Clark stamps will take place at each of eleven sites along the route of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

May 14 marks the bicentennial of what became known as the Corps of Discovery - an expedition from the mouth of the Missouri River near St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back. President Thomas Jefferson instructed Lewis and Clark to follow the Missouri and Columbia Rivers, and locate, if it existed, the elusive Northwest Passage.

To commemorate the bicentennial of the official launch of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the U.S. Postal Service will issue three 37-cent self-adhesive stamps. One stamp features an image of the two valiant leaders of the expedition standing on a promontory surveying the countryside, available in a pane of twenty stamps.

The two additional stamps feature individual portraits of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark painted by Michael J. Deas in a style reminiscent of early 19th-century portraits of the two explorers.

USPS
April 11, 2004

Breast cancer stamp tops post office's best-seller list

The breast cancer awareness postage stamp, the brainchild of Sacramento surgeon Ernie Bodai, has become the biggest-selling stamp in U.S. Postal Service history.

With the stamp's two-year extension approved in January, Bodai had hoped it would surpass sales of the commemorative Elvis Presley stamp. That stamp, which sold 517 million, is no longer on the market.

Bodai said he hopes to take his campaign to other countries. He said singer/actress Olivia Newton-John, with whom he has teamed to market a breast examination pad, is interested in getting a similar stamp approved in Australia.

Because of the success of the breast cancer stamp, which is the first so-called semi-postal stamp created in the United States to raise funds, Congress has approved two other semi-postals.

The postal service has sold 116.3 million of the new Heroes stamp; since June 2002 it has raised $9.3 million for families of emergency workers lost in the Sept. 11 attacks. It also has sold 10.4 million of the Stop Family Violence stamp since its debut in October 2003.

All three first-class stamps cost 45 cents.

SACBEE.COM
April 07, 2004

Henry Mancini Honored on US Postage Stamp

This month, composer Henry Mancini will be honored on a U.S. postage stamp to celebrate his 40-year career of writing music for the movies. For decades, he was the leading composer of film scores, earning 20 Grammy awards and four Oscars. From Charade to Breakfast at Tiffany's, Henry Mancini wrote music for some of Hollywood's leading movies. He also wrote for the small screen, composing the score, for example, for television detective Peter Gunn. But his compositions for films will be best remembered. Some, like Days of Wine and Roses, became classics in their own right. Henry Mancini died of pancreatic cancer 10 years ago. He would have been 80 on April 16, when the U.S. postal service will honor him with a new U.S. postage stamp.

VOICE OF AMERICA
April 05, 2004

The Duke Gets His Own Postage Stamp

He was a cowboy, a Green Beret, a jet pilot and a detective during his long acting career. Now, John Wayne will grace a postage stamp.

The United States Postal Service unveiled its annual "Legends of Hollywood" commemorative postage stamp Saturday night at a private fund-raiser.

The fund-raiser was for the John Wayne Cancer Institute and was held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

This is not the first time Wayne's likeness has appeared on a stamp. In 1990, he was pictured on one of four 25-cent U.S. commemorative postage stamps honoring classic films released in 1939. The stamp featured Wayne as the Ringo Kid in "Stagecoach."

Previous honorees in the "Legends of Hollywood" series including Marilyn Monroe (1995), James Dean (1996), Humphrey Bogart (1997), Alfred Hitchcock (1998), James Cagney (1999), Edward G. Robinson (2000), Lucille Ball (2001), Cary Grant (2002) and Audrey Hepburn (2003).

7ONLINE.COM
April 04, 2004

U.S. Air Force Academy stamps take flight

During a heartfelt anniversary celebration, the U.S. Postal Service dedicated the U.S. Air Force Academy commemorative postage stamp today at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

"Through our postage stamps, we are proud to honor the people and events in our history who have made this nation great," said William T. Johnstone, Secretary of the presidentially appointed Postal Service Board of Governors, who dedicated the stamp. "And make no mistake; the Air Force has been a leader for the past 50 years in helping to keep this nation great."

Joining Johnstone at the ceremony were Lieutenant Colonel Lori Salgado, who served as master of ceremonies, and Lieutenant General John Rosa, Superintendent of the United States Air Force Academy.

On April 1, 1954-seven years after the National Security Act made the U.S. Air Force independent of the Army, and six years after a board of civilian and military educators determined that Air Force needs could not be met by expanding other service academies-President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation authorizing establishment of the academy.

Construction began the next year at an 18,000-acre site near Colorado Springs, CO. In July of 1955, the first class entered temporary facilities set up at Lowry Air Force Base near Denver. Cadets moved to the academy's permanent home in 1958, and the first class graduated from there in June 1959. Women were admitted in June 1976.

USPS.COM
April 02, 2004