Canada Post honors Fay Wray with a postage stamp

Best known as the heroine in the hands of an infatuated ape - King Kong - Fay Wray also stared with such leading men as Gary Cooper, Joel McCrae and Henry Fonda. Now, the Cardston, Alberta native will star on her own postage stamp.

The Fay Wray stamp will be available for sale in Canada post offices on May 26, 2006, as part of a set celebrating Canadians in Hollywood.

STAMPNEWS.COM
December 30, 2005

Canada Post announces new stamps for the Chinese Lunar New Year

On January 6, 2006, Canada Post will issue a stamp and a special souvenir sheet to commemorate the 2006 Lunar New Year (Year of the Dog). The stamps recognize the Asian contribution to the multicultural richness of Canadian life in anticipation of the Lunar New Year that begins on January 29, 2006. The single stamp will reflect the new domestic rate of 51 cents, while the stamp on the souvenir sheet will carry the new international rate of $1.49. The new postage rates take effect on January 17, 2006.

People born in the year of the dog (1910, 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, or 1994) are take-charge individuals and, sadly, perceived by some as being know-it-alls. Yet experience shows that dog people tend to be careful in developing friendships, that they have a good work ethic and are an inspiration to others.

CANADAPOST.CA
December 26, 2005

Hillary Clinton continues her fight for Purple Heart stamp

Senator Hillary Clinton is continuing to press Postmaster General John Potter to keep issuing the Purple Heart Stamp honoring the heroes who have received this medal. She has launched a petition inviting those who agree with the effort to save the Purple Heart Stamp to add their name to her letter.

In a letter to the Postmaster General, Clinton delivered a list of over 750 names of individuals who have signed onto her petition. She also expressed her hope of speaking personally with the Postmaster General to discuss the importance of maintaining the Purple Heart stamp.

The Purple Heart was established on August 7, 1782 during the Revolutionary War, when General George Washington issued an order establishing the Honorary Badge of Distinction, otherwise known as the Badge of Military Merit, or the Decoration of the Purple Heart. The first Badge of Military Merit was presented in Newburgh.

MIDHUDSONNEWS.COM
December 24, 2005

Snowflake physicist's photographs to be featured on 2006 postage stamps

Postage rates may keep going up, but when it comes to natural beauty and scientific wonder, one particular issue of stamps is going to be hard to lick.

Beginning next October, the U.S. Postal Service will issue a set of four commemorative stamps featuring images of snowflakes furnished by that hotbed of snowflake research, the California Institute of Technology.

The holiday snowflakes stamp set will display photographs taken by Caltech physics professor Kenneth Libbrecht.

STAMPNEWS.COM
December 21, 2005

2006 Definitive Stamps

The U.S. Postal Service has unveiled its definitive stamps, postal cards and other stamp products to be issued in 2006.

There will be two new stamps in the Scenic American Landscapes series picturing Yosemite National Park, California (84-cent international letter rate) and Bryce Canyon, Utah (63-cent letter rate for Mexico and Canada).

Pikes Peak will be featured on a 24-cent stamped postal card. The Common Buckeye butterfly will land on a 24-cent stamp for use on postcards and the second-ounce on First-Class mail.

Celebrating the 300th anniversary of his birth Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) will appear on a 39-cent stamped envelope.

Two new additions to the Distinguished Americans definitive series. Virologist Albert Sabin (1906-1993) will be featured on a 87-cents stamp. Dr. Jonas Salk (1914-1995) will on a new 63-cents stamp.

The new $4.05 Priority Mail and $14.40 Express Mail stamps commemorate X-Planes.

A new 39-cent booklet will have corn, chili peppers, beans, squashes and sunflowers.

The popular Lunar New Year stamp images issued in 2005, will be reprinted as 39-centers.

STAMPNEWS.COM
December 18, 2005

Canada's holiday stamps

The Ottawa Citizen reports that for the first time, Canada Post is offering both religious and non-religious stamps during the Christmas season.

In November, Canada Post released three holiday stamps - one showing a snowman and three featuring Nativity scenes. This came just two months after the Catholic Women's League of Canada asked members from its 1,350 councils across Canada to lobby Canada Post, the prime minister, revenue minister, and members of Parliament for a stamp that depicted Jesus's birth.

A Canada Post spokesperson said this year's themes were not the result of lobbying, but more of an "evolution". In 2002, the Christmas stamps showed aboriginal scenes of Jesus and Mary. In 2003, it was Christmas presents. Last year, the theme was Santa Claus parades.

Next year, Canada Post will offer three stamps featuring Christmas cards, and a fourth will depict a Madonna and child.

STAMPNEWS.COM
December 14, 2005

Singapore mark Year of the Dog

SingPost kick off their 2006 stamp program with the issue of a new set of stamps on 6 January to mark the Year of the Dog.

Two new stamps, a miniature sheet, a presentation pack and first day cover make up the issue, a continuance of SingPost's Zodiac series.

GIBBONSSTAMPMONTHLY.COM
December 10, 2005

Larkin lobbies to retain Purple Heart postage stamp

State Senator William Larkin of Cornwall-on-Hudson, who was a driving force in creating the Purple Heart postage stamp and building the Purple Heart Hall of Honor in New Windsor, is now on his latest crusade, to save the postage stamp.

With an increase in the price of a first-class stamp coming, the Purple Heart stamp could become extinct, but Larkin, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army, has received over 400 letters in support of retaining it. He is lobbying the Postal Service in Washington to continue producing the stamp.

"The number of those who died in Iraq is over 2,000 and the number of wounded are over 15,000," he said. "How can you stop honoring people at a time when they are still protecting the interests of the United States of America?"

US Senator Hillary Clinton is also pushing to retain the stamp.

The predecessor to the Purple Heart medal was presented originally by General George Washington while he was stationed in Newburgh.

MIDHUDSONNEWS.COM
December 08, 2005

New 39-cent stamp on sale Thursday

The Postal Service will begin selling a new 39-cent stamp portraying the Statue of Liberty and the American flag on Thursday to be used when the postal rate hike goes into effect Jan. 8.

The Postal Service also announced that it is reprinting large quantities of a two-cent stamp, first issued in 2004, to make it easier for customers to use up any remaining 37-cent stamps after next month's rate increase.

The colorful new first class stamp, called Lady Liberty and U.S. Flag, shows the head, arm and torch of the famous statue in New York harbor superimposed over a portion of a waving flag. The statue was a gift from France in 1886.

The reissued two-cent stamp, known as Navajo Jewelry, shows a painted detail of a Navajo silver and turquoise necklace with sand-cast "squash blossoms" set with polished blue turquoise nuggets.

WASHINGTONPOST.COM
December 07, 2005

Orange Revolution anniversary

The world was gripped last winter by scenes of popular revolution in Ukraine, with orange-clad demonstrators pitched out in the snow fighting against the criminality of the old regime and for their democratic rights. The second round of the presidential elections in Ukraine in 2004 was conducted with the authorities guilty of shocking violations and systematic abuse of individual rights. Protesting under the slogans "Freedom cannot be stopped!", "Together, we are many! We cannot be defeated!" hundreds of thousands people gathered on Kyiv's Independence Square on the evening of November 22 to stop the ruling elite from falsifying an election and hijacking Ukraine's presidency. Over the next 17 days, through harsh cold and sleet, millions of Ukrainians staged nationwide nonviolent protests that came to be known as the "orange revolution". They won.

On January 23, 2005, after a fair voting rerun, the opposition leader Viktor Yuschenko was inaugurated the President of Ukraine. To commemorate this event, a new Ukrainian postage stamp "Independence Square. November-December 2004", showing people protesting on Maidan, was released on the Inauguration Day.

STAMPNEWS.COM
December 06, 2005

Religious stamps not outlawed after all

The annual brouhaha over whether it's Christmas or "the holidays" spilled over into the U.S. Postal Service this week, with the Internet and public conversation awash with horror that no new religiously themed stamp was printed for the 2005 season.

Since 1966, the Postal Service has issued a Christmas stamp that includes the Madonna and Christ child, listed as "traditional" stamps, using classic works of art. Last year's reproduced a painting by 15th-century Italian artist Lorenzo Monaco. The religious stamp usually is accompanied by a separate printing of nonreligious Christmas stamps. This year's theme: Christmas cookies.

But patrons looking for a new religiously themed stamp this year are getting leftover Madonna printings from last year, touching off a wave of reports that the Postal Service was planning to discontinue religiously themed Christmas stamps.

"It's absolutely not true," said Diana Svoboda, spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh district. Next year's printing will include a new Madonna and the price stamped over her left shoulder will explain why a new one wasn't printed this year: Rates are going up to 39 cents per letter Jan. 8.

"We had an overabundance of religiously based stamps from last year," she said. The Postal Service needed to sell its overstock of Madonna stamps and didn't want a fresh crop of outdated stamps sitting in the drawers for next year.

POST-GAZETTE.COM
December 04, 2005

Postal Service unveils 2006 Commemorative stamps

What do Baseball, Batman, Brooklyn's Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, Hattie McDaniel and Harley Davidson have in common? They're all just a sampling of American icons that will be highlighted on 2006 Commemorative postage stamps, the Postal Service announced today.

"Our 2006 program commemorates a wide range of diverse American icons with something that will appeal to everyone," said Postmaster General John E. Potter in describing stamps that will honor Baseball sluggers, comic book heroes, the world's longest bridge span, the first African-American to earn an Oscar and America's love affair with motorcycles.

USPS.COM
December 01, 2005