At the time, the pane of fifty postage stamps was the first to be released in 10 years and it was anticipated that, like with previous issues of its kind, this one would be quite successful as well.  These Greetings from America postage stamps provide unique information about each state.  Flora, fauna, state names and local points of interest are all placed together in a delightful little picture on these 34 cent self adhesive postage stamps.

A fun promotion also went along with this stamp program.  The Travel Industry Association of America partnered with the USPS.  They sponsored a national program called “Win Your American Dream Vacation” where people could enter a contest to win a one week dream vacation.  All fifty states participated and winner from each state was chosen to have a free vacation.

If you would like to add the Greetings from America sheetlet to your collection, Stamp Center has them in stock and ready to ship out to you.

Once the artist for the stamp design was chosen for the Wildlife of the 50 States set, he went about his task of creating a list of the 50 forms of wildlife.  To his surprise 46 of the 50 that he submitted to the Citizen’s Advisory Committee was approved, at least initially that is.  This set of stamps sparked a series of debates and changes that lasted for quite some time within the Committee.  All of the members of the Committee went to great efforts to make sure that each state was adequately represented and that each detail on every stamp was perfect.  By the end of the planning period, some of the original designs were changed and this beautiful set is the end result. It should be noted that the stamps were not identified as belonging to individual states; rather each state was represented in some way within the set.

The next pane of 50 postage stamps issued by the United States Postal Service came in April of 2002 and was called “Greetings from America.”

The Wildlife of the 50 States would make an excellent addition to any stamp collection and Stamp Center has them in stock and ready to ship out.  We offer free shipping to our customers in the United States and $4.50 flat rate shipping for our international customers.

One of the reasons that the Citizen’s Advisory Board chose to create these wildlife postage stamps is that they found that the general public was more interested in animals than the other suggestions that were coming in from the public.  One road block that they encountered, however; is that not all states have a particular state animal that they claim as their own.  So it was decided that the stamps would depict one “wildlife” representative that lives in each of the 50 states instead.  Up for consideration for the postages stamps were mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, fauna, and crustaceans.

Here’s a little stamp history for you to enjoy.  The first wildlife postage stamps appeared in 1869.  They were in 10 cent and 30 cent values and pictured the bald eagle.  The USPS did not issue the next animal postage stamp until 1923 and that was of a bison.  It took the USPS another 24 years to issue the next animal postage stamp.  In 1947 they issued one of the great white heron.  Since 1956, animal postage stamps have been popping up at a much more regular pace, usually to promote environmental protection or conservation issues.

Please check back on Monday for the conclusion to this post.

Stamp Dealers are a great resource for purchasing postage stamps.  They have extensive knowledge about their products and often times have entire collections available to purchase.

Stamp Center is a stamp collecting dealer that provides stamp collection values, stamp collection appraisals and also sells new issue foreign stamps from countries around the world.  Stamp Center is also able to locate those hard to find rare postage stamps for you that will make your collection complete.

Not only does Stamp Center strive to find some fantastic stamps to add to your collection, we also love to save our customers money.  Effective October 13, 2009, all orders shipped out to our customers in the United States and Canada will be sent out for free!  Our foreign customers will also enjoy our reduced flat rate shipping which is only $4.50!

Be sure to check out all of the amazing postage stamps that are available from countries near and far which are listed at Stamp Center.

After December 2007, the stamps were withdrawn from general sale. However, you may be able to get them online at some stamp stores. This stamp has been very popular and the response to it has been quite favorable. Still, the postal service wants to let people know that the stamp will not be available indefinitely. They’d prefer not to destroy any or at least to have to destroy as few as possible once the stamp is taken off of the market.

An Oklahoma artist did the artwork for the stamp. It shows the Cimarron River as it looks in the morning sunlight and the words “Oh, what a beautiful mornin’…” are visible in the painting. Those words were taken from a song that was featured in the Rogers and Hammerstein musical “Oklahoma!” This beautiful artistic rendering commemorates the state in a lovely way and if you are at all interested in Oklahoma you will want to add this stamp to your collection.