Monday Morning Brief | United States stamps for 2018

The United States Postal Service has revealed some of the stamps it will issue in 2018. Linn’s senior editor Denise McCarty takes a look at those that depict people and places in this week’s Monday Morning Brief.

Full Video Transcript:

Good morning and welcome to the Monday Morning Brief for December 18, 2017.

Just last week, on Dec. 12, the United States Postal Service unveiled some of the stamps that it will issue next year.

The people being honored received a fair share of publicity: Sally Ride, the first American woman in space; Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood; John Lennon in the Music Icons series; and singer; actress and activist Lena Horne in the Black Heritage series.

Places are being featured as well. Two high denominations for use on Priority Mail are part of the American Landmarks series illustrated by Dan Cosgrove.

Byodo-In Temple in Hawaii is shown on the $6.70 stamp. Its name means “temple of equality,” and it is a replica of a temple in Japan. The temple in Hawaii was dedicated 50 years ago, in 1968, to honor of the 200th anniversary of the first Japanese immigrants to Hawaii.

The $24.70 stamp for Express Priority Mail shows gulls flying over Sleeping Bear Dunes on Lake Michigan near Traverse City, Mich.

In 2011, the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was named the most beautiful place in America by viewers of ABC’s Good Morning America. In announcing this honor, the National Park Service mentioned that in addition to the dunes, the lakeshore "preserves pristine beaches, quiet rivers, forested hills, and clear inland lakes."

And speaking of beauty, 20 different forever stamps show photographs that illustrate some of the lyrics of America the Beautiful. Written by Katharine Lee Bates, the song includes spacious skies, amber waves of grain, purple mountains, and shining seas, which are all shown on the stamps. The Postal Service is calling this issue “O Beautiful.”

For more information about the other U.S. commemorative and definitive stamps scheduled to be issued in 2018, follow Linn’s on Facebook and Twitter, or read about them on Linns.com.

For Linn’s Stamp News and Scott catalogs, I’m Denise McCarty. Happy collecting in the new year.