USPS reveals Davis, Piaf stamp designs
By Michael Baadke
The Feb. 6 Linn's revealed the designs of two stamps from France intended as a joint issue with the United States. The stamps honor American jazz musician Miles Davis and French singer Edith Piaf.
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| The United States will issue stamps honoring French singer Edith Piaf and American jazz musician Miles Davis in June. |
When that Linn's issue entered the mail and went live online Jan. 23, the U.S. Postal Service still hadn't announced its part of the event: there was no official word that the French Davis-Piaf set would have an American counterpart.
However, the U.S. designs appeared on the Postal Service's Beyond the Perf web site just three days later.
The U.S. images shown here use the same photographs and are similar in style to the French designs pictured in last week's issue. But while the French designs include the names of both countries on both stamps, the U.S. designs are only inscribed "USA" in small letters at upper left.
Both portraits go far to convey the essence of these expressive performers. The web site
milesdavisonline.com observes that the image of Davis on the stamp appears to be the cover photo from his 1971 album,
A Tribute to Jack Johnson.
The U.S. stamps will be issued in self-adhesive panes of 20 that will contain 10 of each design.
Details posted online by the Postal Service note that Piaf was born in Paris, but makes no mention of the fact that this set is a joint issue, or that France has plans to issue matching stamps.
Too late for love
Linn's reader Doris
Diether sent us a postcard this week to ask a fairly simple question.
"What about the post office issuing Love Ribbons stamps on Valentine's Day? How can you mail cards for the holiday?"
Anyone who enjoys sending valentines through the mail won't have an opportunity to use the new stamp on this year's greetings. As our page 1 article reports, the Love Ribbons stamp is being issued Feb. 14.
An alternative is to use last year's Garden of Love stamps, which might be available at some post offices.
Issued as forever stamps, the Garden of Love stamps now cost 45¢ each and can be used to carry any piece of 1-ounce domestic mail.
I wrote last week about the 37-or-so stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service during January. It's unfortunate that the Love Ribbons stamp wasn't one of them.