USPS unveils several 2019 stamp designs

The United States Postal Service has unveiled several of its planned stamp issues for 2019, and there are some real beauties among them.

For those of us who like natural landscapes on stamps, there are a couple of upcoming issues of particular note. The first is a single design commemorating the bicentennial of Alabama statehood, which features a scene from Cheaha State Park in eastern Alabama. The artwork for that stamp looks quite nice, but even more impressive is the Wild and Scenic Rivers issue featuring images of 12 different waterways in the United States. Absolutely beautiful! I certainly plan to snag some of those for my landscapes collection, plus some more to use as postage.

The Post Office Murals issue which depicts five murals painted during the Great Depression also looks interesting, along with the a set of four stamps picturing frogs. The latter set is arguably unnecessary, but has nice colors. I’m intrigued by the USS Missouri stamp, too; I can’t imagine it was easy to come up with a vertical design picturing a battleship!

One set I’m not too excited about? The Cactus Flowers booklet. Bleh. Completely unnecessary in my opinion, though some might feel the same way about the aforementioned rivers issue, so maybe there is a little something for everybody.

There are two more stamps not announced in the USPS press release that we can pretty much count on. I can’t imagine that the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing won’t be recognized in some way—even Philosateleian Post is issuing a stamp commemorating that event—and it seems like a good bet that George H. W. Bush will be remembered, too. In all fairness, the former president didn’t die until after the preliminary list of new stamps was released, but I would be shocked if a commemorative picturing him is not issued within the next year.

Published 2018-12-24