Rocky Mountain Stamp Show to host May 23 debut of 10 colorful stamps picturing baby wild animals

By Charles Snee

Digital illustrations of baby wild animals created by artist Tracy Walker of Uxbridge, Ontario, Canada, will appear on 10 United States forever stamps to be issued May 23 in Aurora, Colo.

The U.S. Postal Service is not holding an official first-day ceremony for the new nondenominated (73¢) Baby Wild Animals stamps.

However, a first-day ceremony for the stamps is scheduled for 11 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time Friday, May 23, at the Rocky Mountain Stamp Show, which is being held May 23-25 at the Arapahoe County Fairgrounds in Aurora. A ceremony program produced by Linn’s Stamp News will be available to attendees. For more information, visit the show’s website.

The Baby Wild Animals stamps will be issued in double-sided panes of 20 featuring two of each design. The USPS calls this format a convertible booklet because it can be folded into a compact size by removing selvage strips on both sides of the pane. Collectors prefer to collect and mount double-sided panes as issued, with the selvage strips in place.

As shown on the U.S. Postal Service’s preliminary image of a block of 10, each animal’s name — fox, owl, deer, seal, rabbit, raccoon, bear, skunk, bobcat and chipmunk — is shown in the bottom left corner of the stamp.

Banknote Corporation of America, one of the U.S. Postal Service’s two stamp contract printers, produced 160 million stamps that were finished into 8 million double-sided panes of 20 for sale at post offices and other outlets authorized by the USPS to sell stamps.

The plate number, which appears on one of the selvage strips, consists of the letter B (shorthand for the printer) followed by four single digits representing the four process colors used to print the stamps: cyan, magenta, yellow and black.

Greg Breeding of Charlottesville, Va., one of the Postal Service’s art directors, worked closely with Walker to bring the Baby Wild Animals stamps to life. The stamps are Walker’s first project for the Postal Service.

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