US Stamps
Format of Goodnight Moon pane a pain for collectors

Philatelic Foreword by Jay Bigalke
On Jan. 13, the United States Postal
Service unveiled eight new commemorative forever stamps honoring the children’s
book Goodnight Moon. An article on the new stamp issue appears in the
Feb. 3 issue of Linn’s.
The layout is similar to the pane of
20 for the Peanuts commemorative forever stamps (Scott 5726) issued Sept. 30,
2022. The sheet of 20 stamps (two stamps of each design) was arranged with a
central label showing Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz.
A preliminary image of the Goodnight
Moon forever stamp pane is shown nearby. It too has a label positioned in the
second and third rows in the center of the pane.
The label is in the upper half of the
pane with a block of eight stamps around the sides and top of the label and
then a block of eight stamps in two rows of four beneath the label. But here’s
the unfortunate catch for collectors. Because of the placement of two Painting
of a Cow stamps in the upper half of the pane and two Bedside Table stamps in
the bottom half underneath the label, there isn’t a block of eight stamps with
different designs together anywhere on the pane.
If the stamps haven’t been printed
yet, I would strongly encourage the USPS to reconsider the layout of the pane
so that the top three rows of stamps that surround the label include the eight
different designs as well as the bottom two rows beneath the label having each
design.
The current layout might be pleasing to a designer, but if the pane is issued this way, it would be a headache for collectors who would like blocks of the eight different designs and Scott catalog editors who will have to determine what to do when numbering the stamps.
Connect with Linn’s Stamp News:
Sign up for our newsletter Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
MORE RELATED ARTICLES
Headlines
-
Postal Updates
Feb 13, 2025, 6 PMUSPS to continue accepting mail from China and Hong Kong
-
US Stamps
Feb 13, 2025, 2 PMCelebrity appearances at Allen Toussaint stamp event
-
World Stamps
Feb 12, 2025, 6 PMGreenland’s 2025 stamp program
-
US Stamps
Feb 12, 2025, 1 PMU.S. 2006 $1 Official mail stamp in demand