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In 1994, three unique Love stamp designs were issued. The Postal Service issued the first Love stamp in 1973, and it proved to be extremely popular. In the years between then and the year of issuance of this stamp, Love stamps continue to be popular for use on such special occasions as Valentine's Day, birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, and when sending special sentiments to someone special.
The Postal Service released its first self-adhesive Love stamp with the Love Sunrise, issued at Loveland, Ohio. It was issued on January 27, 1994, in ample time for use on envelopes for Valentine's Day cards.
Designed by Peter Goode, it was the last of about thirty design concepts submitted to the Citizen's Stamp Advisory Committee for approval. A simple, brightly colored stamp with a cut-paper depiction of a red heart, it symbolized the morning sun rising above the green field with yellow-orange rays and a blue sky.
The Banknote Corporation of American printed the Love Sunrise stamp using both a six-color Goebel offset press and a four-color Epikos intaglio press. It was printed in panes of eighteen. Having die cut perforations, the sheet could also be folded into a booklet.
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The Postal Service issued its Love stamp booklet on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1994, holding the first-day sale at Niagara Falls, New York, a traditional honeymoon destination. This issue featured a heart-shaped arrangement of roses with a dove in the center and its tail feathers extending beyond the roses. While issued with a romantic theme on Valentine's Day, the intended use for this stamp was for mailing wedding invitations.
Ron Sheaff, a USPS art director, and Lon Busch, an airbrush artist, designed the stamps. Conceived as a set (with the 52-cent Scott 2815), both stamps featured a different arrangement of doves and flowers. George Schmitt and Company for the American Banknote Company printed the issue on the five-color gravure press, the colors being black for the shading of the flowers and leaves, red for the roses and the text, green for the rose leaves, yellow for the dove's eye and beak, and beige for shading the dove. It was a traditional 'lick and stick' stamp issued as a booklet with two panes of ten.
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The Postal Service released the 52-cent Love stamp on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1994, at Niagara Falls, New York, a traditional honeymoon destination.
Both Ron Sheaff, a USPS art director, and Lon Busch, an airbrush artist, designed the stamp. It was conceived as a set (with the 29-cent Scott 2814), both featuring different arrangements of doves and flowers. Sheaff and Busch based their stamp design on an actual Victorian photograph from the John Grossman Collection of Antique Images. It depicts two white doves facing each other in a wicker basket filled with roses, carnations, and baby's-breath blossoms.
This 52-cent stamp satisfied the first-class two-ounce rate, which meant that patrons could use it for weighty wedding invitations. The 1994 52-cent Love stamp replaced the 1991 52-cent stamp with lovebirds (Scott 2537), issued for the same purpose.
The size of this stamp, 0.91 by 1.19 inches (23.1 by 30.2 mm), is smaller than the previous first-class two-ounce rate Love stamps. Its size is between that of a commemorative and definitive, a size which also has been used for Christmas stamps since 1990.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing's combination offset-intaglio D press printed this stamp. It was sold in a pane of fifty stamps and is a traditional 'lick and stick' stamp.
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