Four Winter Flowers stamps issued Feb. 14

Four winter flowers are pictured on four new forever stamps from the United States Postal Service.

The stamps, in a double-sided pane of 20 (convertible booklet format), have a Feb. 14 issue date, with a first-day ceremony at the American Philatelic Society’s annual Ameristamp Expo.

The show is taking place Feb. 14-17 at the Statehouse Convention Center, 1 Statehouse Plaza in Little Rock, Ark., with the ceremony planned for Friday in Wally Allen Ballroom A.

Each of the four stamps shows a different blossoming plant: amaryllis, cyclamen, paperwhite and Christmas cactus.

The flower paintings were created by artist William Low. His first project for the Postal Service was his poinsettia illustration on two forever stamps issued Oct. 10, 2013 (Scott 4816 and 4821).

U.S. Postal Service art director Ethel Kessler served as the designer for the Winter Flowers issue.

Banknote Corporation of America for Sennett Security Products printed an initial quantity of 500 million Winter Flowers stamps in double-sided panes of 20.

Press sheets, both with and without die cuts, are available for the Winter Flowers issue. Each press sheet consists of eight double-sided panes and sells for $78.40. A total of 2,500 press sheets of each type were printed.

A standard black four-bar first-day cancel will be offered. The digital color first-day postmark features the words “Winter Flowers,” with color images of flowers inside the letters.

Technical details for the Winter Flowers forever stamps and first-day cancel ordering information are listed in the box below.