US Stamps

American Vistas coil stamps to arrive Feb. 21 at San Diego Stamp Show

Feb 4, 2025, 11 AM

By Charles Snee

On Feb. 21 in San Diego, Calif., the United States Postal Service will issue a pair of nondenominated (10¢) coil stamps for use on presorted standard mail.

The new American Vistas definitive (regular-issue) coil stamps will debut on the first day of the Feb. 21-23 San Diego Stamp Show. The first-day ceremony is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. Pacific Time.

For more information, visit the show’s website.

“American Vistas features illustrations of two iconic American landscapes: mountains and beach,” the USPS said in its announcement of the stamps in the Jan. 9 issue of the Postal Bulletin. “The stylized and minimalist scenes were created as vector illustrations, which were then turned into screen prints, using just three colors: yellow, blue, and navy.”

According to the Google website, a vector illustration consists of points, lines, curves and shapes based on mathematical formulas.

Ashton Potter (USA) Ltd., one of the Postal Service’s two contract printers, printed the American Vistas coil stamps in rolls of 3,000 and 10,000. The print quantities are 21 million stamps (7,000 rolls) and 1 billion stamps (100,000 rolls), respectively.

The stamps may be ordered from Stamp Fulfillment Services in Kansas City, Mo. As a service to collectors, Stamp Fulfillment Services will offer both formats of the American Vistas coil stamps in strips of 27 with plate number. The item numbers for these smaller multiples are listed in Linn’s 2025 U.S. stamp program in the Feb. 17 issue.

Postal Service art director Greg Breeding designed the two American Vistas coil stamps using existing art produced by DKNG Studios in Los Angeles, Calif.

Breeding told Linn’s that he was eager to work with DKNG Studios.

“Dan Kuhlken and Nathan Goldman from DKNG have been design icons since they began in 2005,” Breeding said. “They have been prolific in creating fresh and vibrant art and design ever since, and I’ve always wanted to work with them.”

According to Breeding, DKNG Studios provided art for two previous U.S. issues: the 2019 nondenominated (55¢) Military Working Dogs stamps (Scott 5405-5408) and the Kudos Pinback Button stamp (Scott 5923) from the 2024 nondenominated (73¢) Pinback Buttons set of 10 (5919-5928).

Breeding shed some light on how DKNG Studios artwork found its way onto a pair of stamps.

“Because I am so familiar with their work, I happened to notice the many cool and beautiful things they have in their shop,” Breeding said. “These two paintings had already been created by them for their own promotional use, although not for anyone else. So I asked them if they would be open to licensing them for USPS.”

A central focus for Breeding was creating stamp designs that would have wide appeal for their given use.

“For presorted standard stamps, we like to ...

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