Autumn Colors stamps voted overall favorite in Linn’s 2024 U.S. stamp poll

By Charles Snee

The 10 Autumn Colors commemorative stamps celebrating the stunning colors of fall were selected by Linn’s Stamp News readers as the overall favorite United States 2024 stamp issue.

The 2024 Linn’s U.S. Stamp Popularity Poll was introduced in the Dec. 16, 2024, issue. A two-page magazine spread illustrated all of the stamps issued during the calendar year.

Readers voted online and by postal mail, with ballots published each week in Linn’s through the March 10 issue. Ballots sent by mail had to be postmarked by Feb. 28.

Readers of all ages mailed in a total of 619 ballots in the 2024 stamp poll. This total is approximately 84 percent of the 738 mail-in ballots that were cast in the 2023 poll. Readers cast 921 ballots by mail in the 2022 poll. Readers cast 950 ballots by mail in the 2021 poll.

A total of 1,004 online voters also participated via Linns.com, bringing the total of mail-in and online votes to 1,623. The votes from online and mail-in ballots were combined to calculate this year’s winners.

The nondenominated (73¢) Autumn Colors commemorative forever stamps, which received 293 votes in the Overall Favorite category, were issued Aug. 16, 2024, at the Great American Stamp Show in Hartford, Conn.

Each of the Autumn Colors stamps showcases a picture taken by Allen Rokach (1941-2021), a highly acclaimed nature and garden photographer.

“In addition to the classic autumn colors of orange, red and yellow, the photographs show flashes of vermilion, ocher, violet and cobalt in different landscapes,” the USPS said.

Rokach crisscrossed the globe for more than four decades, training his observant eye during photo assignments that included tulip bulb fields in Holland, Egyptian antiquities and the enormous Amazonian rain forest.

Rokach was also actively involved as an educator, with teaching stints at the American Museum of Natural History and International Center of Photography (both in New York City), among others.

Rokach co-authored with his wife, Anne Millman, eight books and numerous articles on photography, travel, nature and science. Their book Focus on Flowers: Discovering & Photographing Beauty in Gardens & Wild Places captured the 1991 award of the year for photography from the Garden Writers Association of America.

Ethel Kessler of Bethesda, Md., a veteran art director for the USPS, designed the Autumn Colors stamps, which were issued in a pane of 20, as shown on this page.

Linn’s U.S. Stamp Popularity Poll, which began in 1948, is intended as an entertaining and fun way for readers to voice their opinions about the U.S. stamp program. When the poll was first conducted, the categories consisted only of best stamp and worst stamp.

The poll is neither scientific nor statistically valid.

The tables provided with this article list the poll results for the overall favorite, and for the categories of commemorative stamps and definitive and special stamps (combined).

The U.S. Postal Service did not issue a postal stationery item in 2024.

Commemoratives are usually printed once and are available at post offices for a short time. Definitives and special stamps are printed in larger quantities, sometimes more than once, and are available for longer periods.

Within each category, voters could select the stamps or issues they felt had the best design and worst design, and those that they considered the most important and least necessary.

A separate section on the ballot was reserved for the voter’s overall favorite 2024 stamp.

As in previous years, some voters left spots on their ballots unmarked, so the various totals do not all agree.

Online voting was introduced with the 1997 Linn’s U.S. stamp poll, but extreme online ballot box stuffing has taken place from time to time. When that happened in the past, the online votes were tallied separately. No irregularities occurred during online voting for the 2024 poll.

Placing second in the Overall Favorite category, with 258 votes, were the 10 nondenominated (73¢) commemorative stamps illustrating colorful pinback buttons featuring single words of encouragement.

Each of the Pinback Buttons stamps features a single word (accompanied by an exclamation point on four of the stamps) in a distinctive typographic design by a different artist: smile (Don Clark), hello! (Tré Seals), peace (Jay Fletcher), love (Juan Carlos Pagan), fun (Gia Graham), sweet (Jeff Rogers), yes! (Ryan Feerer), cheers! (Lisa Congdon), kudos! (DKNG Studios), and happy (Gina Triplett).

Long before social media, people used pinback buttons as a means of self-expression, according to a fascinating history on the Eye on Design website, https://eyeondesign.aiga.org.

“Social media is today’s most popular platform for self-expression, but the button preceded it as a way to tell others what was on your mind or as a tool to help spread an idea,” Eye on Design said.

Greg Breeding of Charlottesville, Va., served as designer and art director for the Pinback Buttons stamps.

Breeding shared with Linn’s some of the challenges associated with this colorful issue.

“One of the most challenging aspects of the project was to identify the ten words for the stamps,” Breeding said. “We considered many, many other words — from those with more history to those that are trendy right now — but our hope was to choose words that were positive, encouraging, and affirming.”

The pane of 16 forever commemorative stamps featuring stunning photographs by renowned landscape photographer Ansel Adams received 203 votes, placing third in the Overall Favorite category.

“This pane of 16 stamps features some of Adams’ most famous images in his signature ‘straight photography’ style, an approach defined by its precision and directness,” the Postal Service said.

The stamps in the pane are arranged in four rows of four stamps each. The unadorned wide top selvage (margin paper) shows Adams’ name in large white sans serif letters with “photographer, 1902-1984” in much smaller type below his name.

The stamps in the first row (left to right) illustrate Half Dome, Merced River, Winter, Yosemite National Park, California (1938); Oak Tree, Sunset City, Sierra Foothills, California (1962); Thundercloud, Ellery Lake, High Sierra, Sierra Nevada, California (1934); and Denali and Wonder Lake, Denali National Park, Alaska (1947).

Shown on the stamps in the second row (left to right) are The Golden Gate and Bridge from Baker Beach, San Francisco, California (c.1953); Road and Fog, Del Monte Forest, Pebble Beach, California (1964); Rock and Grass, Moraine Lake, Sequoia National Park, California (1936); and Leaves, Mount Rainier National Park, Washington (c.1942).

Stamps in the third row (left to right) showcase Monument Valley, Arizona (1958); Tetons and Snake River, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming (1942); Jeffrey Pine, Sentinel Dome, Yosemite National Park, California (1940); and Mirror Lake, Mount Watkins, Spring, Yosemite National Park, California (1935).

Featured on the stamps in the fourth row (left to right) are Maroon Bells, near Aspen, Colorado (1951); Aspens, Dawn, Autumn, Dolores River Canyon, Colorado (1937); Road After Rain, Northern California (1960); and Dunes, Oceano, California (1963).

Postal Service art director Derry Noyes collaborated with the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust and the USPS to select the 16 photos that appear on the stamps.

“Some of his photographs worked particularly well at stamp size, others not so much,” Noyes told Linn’s. “It’s a juggling act to get the right combination of images that work well together and as [single stamps] when detached from the pane.”

COMMEMORATIVE WINNERS

With 348 votes, the Autumn Colors stamps came out on top in the commemorative Best Design category. The Ansel Adams stamps came in second place, with 314 votes, while the pane of 12 Shaker Design stamps received 313 votes to capture third place.

Fourth place, with 103 votes, went to the five Horses stamps.

In general, these results demonstrate Linn’s readers’ strong affinity for commemorative issues featuring multiple designs, which often offer a rich palette of color and greater flexibility to pay tribute to a subject from different angles.

On the other hand, readers of Linn’s tend to have negative views of stamp designs that are abstract, gimmicky or difficult to discern.

Such was the case for the nondenominated (73¢) commemorative forever stamp honoring former Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek (1940-2020) that doesn’t actually picture Trebek. The Alex Trebek stamp took first place in the commemorative Worst Design category, with 388 votes.

“The stamp artwork evokes the style of the game — in which a provided answer prompts contestants to respond with the corresponding question,” the Postal Service said.

The stamp design features this text on the game show’s iconic blue screen: “This naturalized U.S. Citizen hosted the quiz show ‘Jeopardy!’ for 37 seasons.” Below it, upside down in a handwritten font, is the answer: “Who is Alex

Voters also weren’t pleased with the designs of the 10 nondenominated (73¢) Dungeons & Dragons stamps, which came in second place in the Worst Design category, with 334 votes.

The designs of the stamps highlight characters, creatures and encounters familiar to players of the fantasy role-playing game that celebrated its 50th anniversary last year.

Third place in the commemorative Worst Design category went to the Pinback Buttons stamps, with 194 votes.

First-place accolades in the commemorative Most Important category, with 506 votes, went to the nondenominated (73¢) First Continental Congress, 1774 stamp.

The 10 stamps honoring operatives on the Underground Railroad received 358 votes to capture second place, followed by the six stamps recognizing six endangered species of sea turtles, which came in third place, with 327 votes.

Linn’s readers vigorously stamped their seal of disapproval on the Dungeons & Dragons stamps and Pinback Buttons stamps, which tied for the least necessary commemorative issue, with 524 votes each.

Coming in a distant third, with 98 votes, was the Alex Trebek stamp.

Despite the eye-catching nature of the issue’s subject, voters were not impressed with the 10 commemorative stamps picturing dynamic photos of carnival scenes at night, which came in fourth place in the Least Necessary category, with 64 votes.

Prominent in the pictures on the nondenominated (68¢) Carnival Nights forever stamps are various carnival rides, some of which rotate at high speeds to give riders a thrill.

DEFINITIVE SELECTIONS

Voters in the 2024 poll gave a resounding thumbs up to the four nondenominated (68¢) Garden Delights stamps illustrating photos of a female ruby-throated hummingbird hovering near a zinnia, cigar flower, spotted touch-me-not or sunflower.

In the Best Design category, the Garden Delights stamps took first place by a decent margin, with 467 votes. Second place, with 307 votes, went to the $9.85 Pillars of Creation Priority Mail stamp, and the $30.45 Cosmic Cliffs Priority Mail Express stamp received 183 votes, good enough for third place.

In the Worst Design category, Linn’s voters firmly rejected the nondenominated (10¢) Radiant Star coil stamp, which received 536 first-place votes. The Radiant Star coil stamp was printed in rolls of 3,000 and 10,000 and is designed for use in mail-processing equipment that automatically affixes the stamps to letters and cards in bulk mail shipments.

Second place, with 251 votes, went to the $9.85 Pillars of Creation Priority Mail stamp.

Third place for worst design, with 118 votes, was captured by the nondenominated (66¢) Love stamp featuring a stylized image of a soaring bird holding an envelope sealed with a valentine heart in its beak.

Linn’s voters selected the nondenominated (68¢) Save Manatees stamp as the most important definitive issue in the 2024 program, with 665 votes. The stamp was issued to raise awareness of the West Indian manatee, a vulnerable marine mammal that lives in the inland waterways of Florida, as well as in warm areas of the Atlantic coast, Caribbean Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.

Coming in second and third place among the most important definitive stamps were the U.S. Flags stamps, with 366 votes, and the Christmas Madonna and Child stamp, with 178 votes.

The Radiant Star coil stamp came out on top in the Least Necessary category among definitives, with 371 votes.

The runners-up in the Least Necessary category were the nondenominated (73¢) Kwanzaa stamp and the $1 Floral Geometry stamp, with 357 votes and 160 votes, respectively.

POSTAL STATIONERY

No postal stationery item was issued in 2024.

The nondenominated (66¢) Northern Cardinal stamped envelope was the sole postal stationery item issued in 2023. As such, it qualified only for the overall favorite stamp of 2023. In the 2023 Overall Favorite category, the Northern Cardinal envelope attracted 34 votes, placing ninth.

The Postal Service did not issue any postal stationery in 2022.

In 2021, the Postal Service issued its last Priority Mail stamped envelope (Scott U701), a $7.95 denomination featuring Dan Cosgrove’s vibrantly colored illustration of the historic fort of Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Fla. The 2021 $7.95 Priority Mail stamp (5554) also shows Cosgrove’s depiction of Castillo de San Marcos.

YOUTH VOTE

Linn’s encourages votes from youngsters in the annual stamp poll and asks that ballots be marked to indicate when they are being submitted on behalf of a young person.

The youth votes are compiled and combined with all the other votes, but they are also examined as a separate group to get a sense of the recent stamps that appeal to younger collectors.

Youth participation in the 2024 stamp poll resulted in 196 ballots being submitted. That total represents a noticeable increase from last year, when 122 ballots were submitted. In 2022, youth voters sent in 119 ballots.

This year, youth voting in the Overall Favorite category saw the five Horses stamps and the $30.45 Cosmic Cliffs Priority Mail Express stamp tie for first place, with 20 votes each.

Third place, with 19 votes, went to the Protect Sea Turtles stamps.

The Save Manatees stamp garnered 15 votes to capture fourth place, and fifth place went to the Dungeons & Dragons stamps, with 13 votes.

The Dungeons & Dragons stamps claimed the youth vote as having the best design among the 2024 commemoratives. Younger voters picked the Year of the Dragon stamp as the worst-designed commemorative issue.

Youth voters gave the top spot to the Underground Railroad stamps in the Most Important category among 2024 commemoratives. They also selected the Dungeons & Dragons stamps as the least necessary commemorative issue.

The $30.45 Cosmic Cliffs Priority Mail Express stamp came out on top in the youth vote in the Best Design category for definitives, while the Save Manatees stamp reigned supreme in the Most Important category.

In the Least Necessary category, young people picked the $1 Floral Geometry stamp as their top choice.

VOTER COMMENTS

Voters are always welcome to include additional comments with their ballots, and a handful of participants in the 2024 poll elected to share their thoughts with Linn’s readers.

Roger Tollerud was drawn to the Pinback Buttons stamps because they “were the most fun and generated the most comments from my correspondents. Collectors and noncollectors thought these [stamps] to be fun!”

Steven Scheibner picked the Autumn Colors stamps as his overall favorite because “Allen Rokach seemed to know how to photograph the colors to capture the essence of the season.”

Some voters wrote to say they weren’t impressed with the 2024 program.

Richard Chapman complained that there were too many unnecessary issues. The Underground Railroad stamps are “an important subject and yet [they are] one of the worst designs,” he said.

Ken Morrison wrote to say that he and his wife “love to participate in the Stamp Poll.” However, he lamented the number of issues featuring multiple stamps.

“This year’s [Carnival Nights] — one stamp would suffice; same for the [Autumn Colors] set, [Dungeons & Dragons], Ansel Adams, Shaker Design, and most of all the Pinback Buttons!” Morrison exclaimed.

Harold Forbes sent thoughtful comments several days before the 2024 poll closed March 1.

“The design of the stamp issued to commemorate the First Continental Congress of 1774 is extremely disappointing,” Forbes said. “The design and the color choices demonstrate no historical context, merely a simplistic reliance on overused patriotic motifs. Exceptionally important men served in the First Continental Congress, but none were portrayed. Fortunately, Carpenters’ Hall was featured on the color postmark.”

Forbes also lamented the new series of Flowers definitive (regular-issue) stamps that are intended to replace the Fruits definitive series.

“All the fruit stamps, the apples, Meyer lemons, strawberries, blueberries, grapes, and pears, are beautifully vibrant images that are easily recognizable, both for the fruit pictured and for the stamp [denomination] indicated,” Forbes said. “By comparison, the flower stamps are bland, inadequately occupy the image area, and are not readily identifiable. They compare most unfavorably to the other flower stamps that have been issued in recent years.”

On a positive note, Forbes pointed out a number of 2024 issues that pleased him.

“The highlights of the year, in my opinion, are the sets for Ansel Adams, Autumn Colors, Garden Delights, and the Sea Turtles,” Forbes said. “The most spectacular images of the year are the Pillars of Creation and the Cosmic Cliffs, equal in every respect to their wonderful predecessors in the [American Landmarks] series of high value stamps for Priority Mail.”

As one might expect, the vast majority of poll ballots Linn’s receives are sent via regular first-class mail. One notable exception (for the third year in a row) was the Lancaster Country Day School, which used a large Priority Mail envelope franked with a $10.10 Spiral Galaxy Priority Mail stamp, a $2 Floral Geometry stamp and six stamps from the 2024 Flowers set to submit a sizable number of youth ballots from the school’s students.

The $12.65 franking paid the postage for a Priority Mail envelope weighing not more than 2 pounds sent to a Zone 4 address.

In a cover letter accompanying the ballots, John Ford said this is the 18th year that students at the school have participated in Linn’s U.S. stamp poll.

“I had a tough time deciding among the Best Designs, but no trouble at all designating the disappointingly muddy and fuzzy Autumn Colors as Worst Design,” Ford wrote. “It was also an easy task consigning [the Dungeons & Dragons stamps] to Least Necessary.”

“The students (and their teachers) are looking forward to seeing the results this spring,” Ford said. “Thanks for a great newspaper — keep up the good work.”

THANKS TO ALL PARTICIPANTS

Hearty thanks to all Linn’s readers who participated in this year’s poll. Special felicitations go to teachers who distributed ballots to the students in their classes, and to stamp clubs for youngsters and adults who submitted ballots after distributing them to members during club meetings.

Participating groups that identified themselves include Euclid Stamp Club, Euclid, Ohio; Fremont Stamp Club, Fremont, Calif.; Greater Cincinnati Philatelic Society, Cincinnati Ohio; Kiwanis Club of the Haddons, Haddonfield, N.J.; Long Beach Stamp Club, Long Beach, Calif.; Medina County Stamp Club, Litchfield, Ohio; Mt. Nittany Philatelic Society, State College, Pa.; Naperville Area Stamp Club, Naperville, Ill.; Nevada Stamp Study Society, Sparks, Nev.; Oregon Stamp Society, Portland, Ore.; Port Saint Lucie Stamp Club, Port Saint Lucie, Fla.; Pottstown Stamp Club, Pottstown, Pa.; Rockford Stamp Club, Belvidere, Ill.; Southern Nevada Stamp Club, Las Vegas, Nev.; and The World Wide Stamp Club, Dunedin, Fla.

The participating youth stamp clubs include Hamden Hall Country Day School, Hamden, Conn.; and Lancaster Country Day School, Lancaster, Pa.

Voting in Linn’s U.S. Stamp Popularity Poll for 2025 is scheduled to begin in December.

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