Monday Morning Brief | Linn’s U.S. Stamp Popularity Poll

Watch as Linn’s Stamp News senior editor Denise McCarty announces the opening of the Linn’s 2016 U.S. Stamp Popularity Poll and invites collectors to participate by voting for the favorite and least-favorite stamps of the year.

Full video transcript:

Welcome to the Monday Morning Brief for December 5, 2016.

This is the time of the year for many family traditions, and Linn’s Stamp News has an end-of-the-year tradition of its own: the Linn’s U.S. Stamp Popularity Poll.

In a poll dating back several decades, each year Linn’s Stamp News asks its readers to express their opinions, through their votes, on the new stamps issued by the United States. The first poll, in 1948, had only two categories: best stamp and worst stamp. The number of categories, along with the number of stamps issued each year, has increased since then. 

Connect with Linn’s Stamp News: 

    Sign up for our newsletter
    Like us on Facebook
    Follow us on Twitter

The 2016 poll opens this week. As George Amick reports in the December Linn’s monthly issue, the U.S. Postal Service released 154 stamps and postal stationery items in 2016, including 15 stamp varieties that were issued without die cuts. He further broken the total down into 52 commemoratives, 75 definitive (regular-issue) stamps, 11 special stamps for weddings and holidays, such as Christmas, and one stamped envelope.

The Postal Service began the year by issuing a stamp in its Love series Jan. 12 with a design featuring a quilled paper heart and ended it Nov. 3 with a Nativity stamp showing the Holy Family — Mary, Joseph and Jesus in a straw-filled manger — with a bright star shining on them.

In between those two dates, stamps commemorating and depicting a variety of subjects were issued from Shirley Temple and Wonder Woman to the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766 and the 100th anniversary of our national parks. These and the other stamps issued during the year are pictured in the December Linn’s monthly, which also includes the ballot to vote in the poll. There is online voting as well at Linns.com.

The poll is open to everyone, but ballots must be postmarked or submitted online by March 1, 2017, to be counted. The results will be announced sometime in late spring.

As Linn’s editorial director Donna Houseman writes in the Editor’s Insights column this month, “Keep in mind, this is not a scientific poll. The poll is intended as a fun way for readers to share their opinions of the stamps and postal stationery items issued by the U.S. Postal Service.”

For Linn’s Stamp News and Scott catalogs, I’m Denise McCarty.

Enjoy your week in stamps and voting in the poll. You can keep up on the latest stamp news by following Linns.com on Facebook and Twitter.