To commemorate the bicentennial of the official launch of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the U.S. Postal Service will issue three 37-cent self-adhesive stamps. One stamp features an image of the two valiant leaders of the expedition standing on a promontory surveying the countryside, available in a pane of twenty stamps. The two additional stamps feature individual portraits of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark painted by Michael J. Deas in a style reminiscent of early 19th-century portraits of the two explorers. Ten each of these stamp portraits are included in a special 32-page prestige booklet entitled "Lewis & Clark: The Corps of Discovery, 1804-1806," available for $8.95. In addition to the stamps, the booklet contains informative text, historic illustrations and scenic photographs. Ron Fisher, a Lewis & Clark enthusiast who visited many of the expedition's sites and first wrote about the Corps of Discovery in 1970, wrote the text.Why do I say they are trying to pick my pocket? The face value of the 20 stamps in the booklet is $7.40. They charge $8.95 for it--$1.55 above face value. Even if I do not want the booklet--I just want the stamps to use on my mail--I do not have the option of just buying the stamps at face value. And the limited printing and distribution of this issue will create an artificial scarcity, so I will never see this stamp on incoming mail. So I'll just have to be satisfied posting the hastily cut-and-pasted picture of the stamps here at Ghost Town Orange.
The frames of these stamps look like the classic engraved US postage stamps of the 1920s and early 1930s; the vignettes of these stamps feature paintings by Michael J. Deas, who also designed the stamps. Aren't they beautiful? Pity I won't see them in the mail.
