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  • 41c Year of the Rat single
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41c Year of the Rat single

Object Details

Description
On January 9, 2008, in San Francisco, California, the Postal Service issued a 41-cent Lunar New Year commemorative stamp in a pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet of twelve stamps. Ethel Kessler of Bethesda, Maryland, designed the stamp.
Beginning in 2008, the Postal Service introduced a series of Lunar New Year stamps. The series will continue through 2019, with stamps issued consecutively to celebrate the Year of the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Ram, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Boar.
Ethel Kessler, working on the new series with illustrator Kam Mak of Brooklyn, New York, chose festive red lanterns that are common decoration at New Year celebrations, at which celebrants frequently hang them in rows. Kessler also incorporated elements from the series of Lunar New Year stamps designed by Clarence Lee of Honolulu, Hawaii, who created paper-cut designs for all twelve animals associated with the Chinese lunar calendar as well as the calligraphic Chinese characters drawn by Lau Bun, also of Honolulu.
Seventy-two million stamps were printed in the gravure process by Avery Dennison (AVR).
Reference:
"Philately," Postal Bulletin, December 6, 2007.
mint
Credit line
Copyright United States Postal Service. All rights reserved.
Data Source
National Postal Museum
Date
January 9, 2008
Object number
2008.2021.1
Type
Postage Stamps
Medium
paper; ink (multicolored) / photogravure
Place
United States of America
See more items in
National Postal Museum Collection
Title
Scott Catalogue USA 4221
Topic
Holidays & Celebrations
Asian-Pacific American Heritage
Contemporary (1990-present)
U.S. Stamps
Record ID
npm_2008.2021.1
Usage
Usage conditions apply
GUID
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/hm8fc0d7368-315d-4ebf-be31-f0e4e9301695

Related Object Groups

  • Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage in the Collections
  • Year of the Rat
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HomeSmithsonian National Postal Museum

Visit »

Open daily 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Admission is always free!

2 Massachusetts Ave., N.E.
Washington, DC 20002

The museum's main entrance is located on the corner of First Street and Massachusetts Avenue NE. Other entrances have variable hours.

street map of Postal museum

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