Two new floral stamps issued at St. Louis Stamp Expo

By Steven J. Bahnsen

Two lovely floral stamps were issued on March 22. The United States Celebration and Wedding Blooms stamps debuted at a delightful ceremony that was part of the St. Louis Stamp Expo show held March 22-24 in Missouri.

One stamp pays the first-class letter rate and has a current face value of 68¢, and the companion stamp currently has a face value of 92¢. Linn’s Stamp News article about the stamps is here.

The companion stamp pays for a 2-ounce letter. Both stamps were designed by Derry Noyes based on paintings by Kim Parker.

Nathan Esbeck of the St. Louis Stamp Expo show committee led the ceremony as master of ceremonies. His children passed out the attractive programs. The programs contained both stamps with a first-day-of-issue cancel on them.

The colors were presented by the Army Junior ROTC of McCluer High School of Florissant, Mo.

Postal employee Alexis Evans sang the national anthem.

Attendees were welcomed by Babatunde Deinbo, mayor of Berkeley, Mo. A native of Nigeria, he gave a spirited talk extolling the virtues of the Berkeley area. He was joined by the fire chief, assistant fire chief and city clerk.

Both stamps were dedicated by Diana Nygaard, the acting postmaster of St. Louis. She then joined Deinbo and Esbeck to unveil the stamps. Later, both men were given enlargements of each stamp.

Roughly 55 people attended this celebration, which rated a solid A-plus for stamp collectors.

Postmarks were freely available after the ceremony, and the two stamps could be purchased at the show from the Postal Service retail booth.

The stamps, however, were not distributed automatically because they are considered mail-use stamps and are not part of the new program to automatically ship commemorative stamp issues to post offices nationwide in advance of the first day.

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