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