USPS visits Bikini Bottom with SpongeBob SquarePants set Aug. 1

By Scott Tiffney

On Aug. 1 in New York City, the United States Postal Service will issue a set of nondenominated (78¢) forever stamps with four designs in a pane of 16 celebrating the Nickelodeon animated television cartoon series SpongeBob SquarePants. These stamps will always be equal in value to the current 1-ounce first-class letter rate.

A first-day-of-issue event for the SpongeBob SquarePants stamps will take place from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Eastern Time in Father Duffy Square located in Times Square, 7th Ave. and W. 47th St., New York City. For those wishing to attend, the event is free and open to the public, and the stamps will be available to purchase. USPS art director Greg Breeding, who designed the stamps using artwork provided by Nickelodeon, will be available for autographs at the event.

“The beloved Nickelodeon animated series SpongeBob SquarePants has left an enduring mark on generations of viewers,” the Postal Service said. “Its unique blend of humor, memorable characters, and universal themes have made it popular with audiences of all ages.”

Of the four designs, two bright yellow stamps feature closeups of SpongeBob’s smiling face, one with the character’s mouth open, the other with it closed. A third stamp pictures a host of other characters from the show including from left to right: Sandy Cheeks, Patrick Star, Plankton, Mr. Krabs, SpongeBob, Gary, and Squidward Tentacles.

The fourth stamp shows SpongeBob and Patrick enthusiastically playing on the sandy ocean floor. …

Banknote Corporation of America, one of two contract printers for the USPS, printed the new SpongeBob SquarePants forever stamps in a quantity of 36 million stamps in 2.25 million panes of 16. A plate number consisting of a “B” followed by four single digits is printed in the bottom two corners of the pane. Each digit represents one of the four colors used to print the stamp: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. …

Two pictorial first-day cancels for the SpongeBob SquarePants issue are being offered by the Postal Service, one in black and the other in color.

The black postmark is applied free, up to a quantity of 50, to most collector-submitted covers. There is a 5¢ charge for each additional postmark over 50.

The black postmark features a closeup of a smiling, open-mouthed SpongeBob to the left of “SpongeBob SquarePants” in a bold show font with additional first day details underneath.

The color postmark features the smiling characters of Sandy Cheeks, Patrick Star, SpongeBob and Gary, with a grimacing Squidward Tentacles to the left of “SpongeBob SquarePants” in a bold sky blue show font with additional first day details underneath in olive green and pink.

The color postmark can be obtained by collectors on envelopes made from laser-safe paper. There is an order minimum of 10 envelopes with a fee of 50¢ per postmark. The Postal Bulletin provides additional ordering information.

Both postmarks are also applied to first-day covers manufactured and sold by the Postal Service. All requests for the SpongeBob SquarePants first-day cancels must be postmarked by Dec. 1.

Further SpongeBob SquarePants issue products are available from the online USPS postal store.

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