The Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee (which does the first winnowing of proposed new designs, reducing the 30,000-50,000 proposals to a much smaller number from which the Postmaster General chooses the final designs (approximately 35 annually) has standards but they do not appear to be available online, at least as far as I could Google.
One standard is that topics generally must be American in focus. Another is that no living person except a former President may be depicted; that a person must have been dead at least ten years before being depicted, again excluding former Presidents, who are customarily honored with a stamp issue in the year following their death.
I would point out that Lafayette (and Churchill, who was also commemorated on a U.S. stamp) are not strictly foreigners; they held honorary U.S. citizenships, along with a handful of others.
AFAIK, enemies of the U.S. and the notorious are not generally considered acceptable, but I cannot cite a standard saying so, just observation of what does get chosen.
I had always understood as well that the “rule” was that you had to be dead to be on a stamp. That being said, how do these guys get away with letting you put your own picture on your stamps?
Much in the same way that those postage meters work. They are sort of a “partner” to USPS, but since PC Postage (the technology behind them, also called e-stamps by some) doesn’t actually require a picture of any kind (the barcode is the important part), they decided that there was a market for customized stamps.
Not in the strict sense of being perforated pieces of paper printed by the U.S. government that you can buy and affix to letters to pay for postage.
Neither is a label from a postage meter. But it’s a means of imprinting postage, and in the amount that particular item of mail requires, which can be tricky if you just have first class and miscellaneous old stamps lying around and you have a 4-ounce 9x12 envelope to mail.
These are third party imprints that have an arrangement to imprint with a value in postage and the USPS will accept them. They look like stamps. But they’re not official government issue.
The Chicago Reader could get a slug (not Mr. Signorino) made for their postage meter that would imprint ‘FIGHTING IGNORANCE SINCE 1973’ along with postage and a Chicago postmark if they chose. And they could buy “stamps” with Cecil’s face on them from the PhotoStamps people (assuming Cecil let his photo be used).
But if they chose to use USPS stamps, they’re stuck with eagles, flags, flowering cacti, famous American hamster breeders, or whatever the Postmaster General has decided this year’s stamp issues are going to be.
The controversy wasn’t so much that some Hammarskjold stamps were misprinted than the Postal Service commisioned more stamps to be misprinted so the pre-existing ones wouldn’t be as valuable.
I was under the impression that there was a rule against having living people on U.S. Currency, but nothing about stamps. (although the rule didn’t always exist – Lincoln appeared on U.S. currency, IIRC, during his lifetime).
I’d completely forgotten about it when I asked the question about foreigners.
My daughter’s picture is on those stamps. I got them for her a couple of years ago when they first came out in trial versions.
They were soon blocked for about a year during some hearings.
Some people had tried to sneak in pictures that were against their stated policies - things like swastikas, porn, and politicians photoshopped into compromising scenes. And there was one of Monica Lewinsky’s blue dress.
I guess now they have better censors screening things.
There was recently a case in England in which a letter was successfully delivered to the correct address, despite the fact that the front of the envelope only had a map of southern England with an arrow reading “somewhere around here.”
Groucho Marx once received a letter that had no words and only a very iffy caricature of him on the envelope. Sometimes the U.S. Postal Service can work miracles.
A few years ago, a U.S. postage stamp was issued with the firemen at Ground Zero hoisting the American flag. All three individuals are still alive. I wrote to the Postmaster General asking about the no-living-people rule (not that I objected to the stamp, as such), but never heard back.
As to foreigners, Frida Kahlo also had a stamp a year or two back.
The Ripley’s Believe It Or Not museum in Florida has some envelopes that arrived without any address whatever!
This was when it was a new newspaper feature, in the 20’s I think, and it was a rage like Guinness Records are today. Everyone wanted to appear in the paper as sending the oddest envelope.
Since the Post Office was dealing with a lot of these jokers, one envelope got through with no address at all. Ripley’s implies that it was because their contest was so famous, but I suppose it’s more likely that you could see the message though the envelope.
Or I suppose some fading ink system is possible?