On September 22 in Washington, D.C., the USPS will issue a set of four 44-cent, Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States commemoratives in a pressure-sensitive adhesive souvenir sheet.

Plate Number Printed in Error
The sheet is being issued with plate numbers that were intended to be removed before going to press. The USPS news release specifies that the sheet was printed in six colors: black, cyan, magenta, yellow, silver and gold; however, the release also gave a plate number consisting of the letter “P” (to identify Ashton Potter as the printer) followed by only five single digits. Since there usually is one single digit for each color, we requested clarification and were advised by the USPS that “All the technical details are correct, and the souvenir sheets were printed in six colors. Plate numbers are not meant to appear on souvenir sheets, and the plate number representation on the back of the souvenir sheet—in preliminary versions—was not removed in pre-press and approval processes as intended.” As all sheets show the plate number, there is no extra value resulting from the printing.

All 224 of the paintings that will be judged are loaded on our site. The contest is scheduled for October 16-17, at which time the design will be chosen for RW77, the 2010 Federal Duck Stamp. The contest will be held at the Patuxent Research Refuge in Laurel, Md.

View all the entries now!

The St. Louis Stamp Expo will be held February 26-28, 2010 at the Renaissance St. Louis Airport Hotel, located next to St. Louis’ Lambert International Airport. An exhibitor's prospectus is now available for those who wish to exhibit.

The St. Louis Stamp Expo is an official APS World Series of Philately Exhibition. The Grand Award winner will qualify for the APS Champion of Champions Show in 2010. Over 3,000 pages of exhibits will be featured at the Expo, along with a Court of Honor, participation of 50 dealers, philatelic speakers and societies, a Youth Area, and a national public auction by Regency-Superior, Ltd. The Expo will be commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the downtown St. Louis Library, and is proud to host the annual convention of the Military Postal History Society.

The jury will be headed by Darrell Ertzberger of Crystal City, Virginia. Other jury members include Elizabeth Hisey, Eliot A. Landau, Jerry H. Miller and Henry Sweets III.

To obtain an exhibitor's show prospectus, write to the St. Louis Stamp Expo, 229 N. Euclid Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63108, or call (314) 361-5699. An application is available online at www.stlstampexpo.org. Deadline for submission is December 15, 2009.