Romeo, Michigan, postmaster shares Valentine’s Day with Juliette, Georgia

Postmark Pursuit by Scott Tiffney

The United States Postal Service, in conjunction with the Romeo, Mich., post office, is offering a pictorial postmark highlighting the romance of Valentine’s Day. A historic village located 40 miles north of downtown Detroit, Romeo is celebrating its 33rd year of helping romantics far and wide send love letters to their special someone with a special Valentine’s themed cancel.

The postmark shows the silhouette of a courting couple — a kneeling Romeo looking lovingly into the eyes of a seated Juliet — in an archway to the left of a stylized heart containing datestamp details with the words “Celebrating Love on Valentine’s Day” underneath.

This year’s postmark was designed by artist Kevin Colton of New York, who also created the winning cachet for the 2023 American First Day Cover Society’s annual cachetmakers contest (Linn’s, Oct. 16, 2024, page 16) with his cachet for the Deer stamp (Scott 5822) from the 2023 Winter Woodland Animals set (5822-5825).

But like the famous lovers Romeo and Juliet, the story of Romeo’s annual postmark goes even further. In order to offer star-crossed lovers something more than a just Romeo themed postmark, the town’s one-time postmaster Alexander Stubbs hit on an idea.

On the suggestion of a supervisor looking to expand upon the town’s previous “From Romeo with Love” themed postmark, Stubbs decided to look into including a ‘Juliet’ for a coupling of postmarks to celebrate the annual day for lovers. He consulted the USPS Zip Code book to see if such a place existed for a dual-town postmark offering.

The closest Stubbs could find to the famous female’s namesake was Juliette, Ga., a small town 70 miles southeast of Atlanta. After reaching out to then Juliette postmaster Sandra Molton with the proposal, Stubb’s offer was met with excited acceptance, and the Romeo and Juliette Valentine’s Day dual postmark program was born.

Today, the post offices of Romeo, Mich., and Juliette, Ga., share a heartfelt design and heartwarming tradition of adding a romantic flourish to thousands of letters and postcards they receive from around the world each year, all thanks to a postmaster’s creative idea of sharing the endearing spirit of Valentine’s Day.

To obtain the postmark, address your request to:

ROMEO MICHIGAN Station, 119 Church St., Romeo, MI 48065-9998, Feb. 1.

Share information by writing to Postmark Pursuit, Box 882, Troy, OH 45373.

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