Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
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The picture on the stamp is not very flatting of the lady, IMHO.
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I personally think the bar is set WAY TOO LOW as to who makes it onto a stamp.
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While I suspect that the promptness with which a stamp is being issued for Ms. Angelou is the result of a PC attitude, I do believe her contribution to literature will be a lasting one.
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Hey Smauggie. I will respect your opinion on that point. I guess it just brings to mind the age old debate of who should and or shouldn't be honored on stamps. It reminds me of something I read the other day. The queen of England had bestowed a very high honor (I can't remember the name) on the Beatles. A group of WW2 vets who had earned the same honor protecting the British people were so offended they boxed up their copy of the same honor and shipped it back.
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Gosh fellas I have to disagree - she was an amazing poet, author and humanitarian and a very wise soul. I love reading her works. No she wasn't a war hero, or a politician or a sports star, she was a genius who touched people with words that expressed the feelings of the human heart. She made the world a better place through kindness and love. I wish stamps honored more people like her who radiate goodness instead of power.
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I agree that Maya Angelou is of the same caliber as Lydia Mendoza, Janis Joplin, Johnny Cash, Charlton Heston, Jimi Hendrix, Ralph Ellison, and Ray Charles. Is she as esteemed as Rosa Parks, Althea Gibson, and Harvey Milk? You decide.
I would be more inclined to criticize the choice of Muscle Cars, Vintage Seed Packets, Harry Potter, and Batman.
JMHO
Lars
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I'm like Rip Van Winkle here, not having paid much attention to stamps since about 1980. Back then collectors were critical of the USPS for excess and unnecessary stamp issues... and from what I see today, we hadn't seen nuthin' yet back then!
I believe the rule was that anyone, other than a president, had to be dead 25 years to qualify for a stamp, to make sure that their memory would be enduring. I guess that rule went out the window long ago. Stamps today are just stickers.
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"I believe the rule was that anyone, other than a president, had to be dead 25 years to qualify for a stamp, to make sure that their memory would be enduring. I guess that rule went out the window long ago. Stamps today are just stickers."
Hendrix, Joplin, and Milk have all been dead at least 25 years, and I have no problem with honoring their contemporaries that weren't assassinated or died of a drug overdose.
There is certainly a point to be made about stamps issued to honor rocks, spiders, and comic book characters, but to say "stamps today are just stickers" ignores the rich history of the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement currently being celebrated.
The date of April 9 will soon be commemorated with the 150th Anniversary of the end of the Civil War. (At least the end of major hostilities and the surrender of Lee's troops). Many Civil Rights marches are at the 50th Anniversary. I would argue that the commemorative issues today are more interesting and poignant that at any other time of our history!
Sure, they are diluted by stupid stamps honoring Batman, and I wish there was a limit of 15-20 commemoratives per year to really focus on the important stuff, but don't toss the baby with the bathwater!
Lars
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I don't have a problem with her being recognized on a stamp. But when, as the OP said, they get the WRONG quote, there's a problem.
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"I don't have a problem with her being recognized on a stamp. But when, as the OP said, they get the WRONG quote, there's a problem."
Agreed, but they didn't quote something she never said, they quoted something she famously repeated. It would have been better to quote an original expression of hers, obviously.
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For those who do not know which quotation has been misattributed, or whose quotation it originally was, some wag has posted this on the internet:
Anglund's words (on the actual stamp) are: "A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song." Angelou's best-known work is entitled I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
Although there's an obvious link, this feels like a genuine USPS error.
I'm not convinced that the stamp reflects an especially PC attitude - there are plenty of black and native American heritage issues which (whatever their quality) are justifiable on grounds of cultural history. Whether Angelou was a sufficiently great writer to warrant a stamp is a different matter: I found her book rather cloying and her 'poem' at Clinton's inauguration even more so. But she is an immensely popular and respected figure on both sides of the Atlantic and that's usually enough to get onto a stamp.
The Beatles' "Member of the Order of the British Empire" (MBE) is in fact the lowest grade of public honour, and was (if memory serves) the first time that figures from popular, working-class culture had ever been recognised in that way. I recall ex-servicemen returning their medals in disgust, but those would not have been MBEs, which are civilian honours. The honouring of figures in popular culture has of course become commonplace since the 1960s, the rationale being the amount of money they bring to the national coffers as much as their supposed ambassadorial qualities.
The Royal Mail does not depict living people on stamps, although collectors delight in spotting identifiable exceptions in group scenes on some issues. Thus significant World War Two figures such as Vera Lynn or Sir Nicholas Winton are still waiting, seventy years on...
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Thanks to all! I learned some things today.
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06:56:48am
Prior to 2011, living persons could not be pictured on US stamps and, before 2007, with rare exceptions, a person other than a former President had to have been dead for 10 years before they could be the subject of a stamp (other exceptions were made for extraordinary statesmen such as Dag Hammarskjold, Cordell Hull, etc.). This time period was reduced to 5 years in 2007, and eliminated altogether in 2011.
I am not a fan of Maya Angelou, but recognize her substantial contributions, and believe she more than qualifies for depiction/commemoration on a US postage stamp.
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Ian, Royal Mail depicts living people on stamps all the time. The royals come to mind.
Regarding the Angelou stamp... do we have a potential recall coming? I haven't heard anything about that.
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Quite right, Michael. An exception is made when considering the royals, as ever. Britain is rather good at doing that.
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06:53:16pm
Anglo-American culture, customs and conventions are filled with exceptions, anomalies and aberrations.
As soon as some principle is set, and carefully inscribed on flowing water, variations and special cases are sought, discovered and the replacement process begins.
It seems to be a part of our nature and while sometimes confusing, makes every man a potential poet, free to express his ideas in novel ways, every lawyer becomes a potential scholar and every inventive mind about to explode with the totally unforeseen, unexpected and amazing discovery.
Rules are meant to be broken and they so often are, that making a particular rule is an open invitation to find the loophole.
The ten year post-passing rule, with exceptions for recently departing presidents, and oh yes, very famous individuals, no, let's make it five years or, shucks, forget the whole dammed idea.
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USPS starting last year chose to ignore the 10-year rule.
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Hi Everyone;
Ellen Degeneres, showed that stamp on her show today at 4PM on CBS. They also made up some additional fake stamps with Eleanor Roosevelt and someone else I can't remember. David Letterman will probably skewer the USPS tonite also. I guess they have to think of some way to get material, since their writers come up with such lame and boring material.
Just thinkin' too much....
TuskenRaider
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Looks like the Post Office missed an opportunity here. According to Time magazine, the stamp won't be corrected and re-issued:
http://time.com/3814888/maya-angelou-stamp-us-postal-service-joan-walsh-anglund/
Just think of the sales they could have made with a controversial error and correction. They could even issue unmarked packets in which the contents are either the error or the correction by random chance. Oh wait, they've already done that... 
Somewhat reminiscent of the USPS substituting the Las Vegas version of Lady Liberty on a stamp a few years back.
The general discussion here is a familiar one: the current culture as reflected in stamps (music, television, movies, etc.) is in general pathetic, and is a troubling departure from the culture of the good old days. If we could just get back to the stamps (music, television, movies, etc.) of the good old days, life would again be right. Being mostly a traditionalist, I've certainly had those thoughts. But then I had those same thoughts back in the 1970s. Not about music mind you, my parents had those thoughts about the music I listened to... 
I suppose it is just nostalgia that makes me long for a return to the days in which all stamps are both engraved and done with excruciating craftsmanship, a plate block has four stamps, and stamps can be soaked off with tap water. Of course we would also have thriving stamp shops in all metropolitan areas, letters and postcards outnumbering ads in the daily mail, and millions of kids taking up the hobby as both fun and educational. We'd better get ready - we might not even have postal service as we know it today in 30-40 years. 
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Hi Everyone;
Does anyone remember a couple years or so ago, the post office issued a stamp with the upside-down pine cones pointing straight up from the branches? Then they were dumb enough to claim that they were correct and that is the correct image?
Just Chillin....
TuskenRaider
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If they would have waited the formerly 10 years after death to issue the stamp, they probably have gotten it correct, but they were in a rush to get it out.
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"they probably have {sic} gotten it correct"
I dunno. The Grand Canyon formed millions of years ago and USPS tried to put it in Colorado!
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LOL. Isn't the picture transposed too?
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Yes, the image was reversed. A Park Ranger caught the error. USPS said they put procedures in place to prevent such errors in the future, but apparently procedures to prevent misattribution of a quote weren't included.
The simple solution is to limit commemoratives to 12 truly worthy subjects per year and spend sufficient time in the vetting process.
Lars
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One commemorative a month. That would be nice. We had three new stamp issues (7 different stamps) last week! A week or so before that we had the water lilies and the beautifully and most artistic "From Me to You" stamp (5 different stamps).
A couple of weeks, and 12 new stamps, some of which collectors will have to buy in sheets. That was a shot in the wallet to go along with what IRS took on the 15th.
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This is why I have a cutoff date in the 90's. They have just gotten so out of control with new issues, I decided not to play their game anymore.
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Just picked up a sheet of the Maya Angelou stamps today to put on my "trading" mail.
Post Office had plenty of this stamp but not the new Civil War stamps. 
(??
)
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My post office got the Angelou, Civil War and Dog Wood stamps in all on the same day. I love one of the clerks as she cries out to me when she sees me walk into the door whenever she has a new stamp.
She now asks me what the next stamp. I show her the Linns, and she makes sure that they order the stamp.
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I forgot to mention I got the Dogwoods too. Those will look very nice on the trading envelopes. 
It's been a good couple years for battle commemoration on stamps, for Civil War and the War of 1812. I'm still bummed that my favorite battlefield, Shiloh, was not given a stamp this time in 2012,though.
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Bob. Sent you a PM to tell you about my 6th grade field trip to Shiloh battlefield. Wasn't sure if it would be deemed off topic
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Bob, if Shiloh was brought up, probably someone in the USPS said that it was a song by Neil Diamond. Thus, they couldn't do a stamp on it, since he's still alive.
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06:57:35pm
Just saw this, literally five minutes ago on NBC Nightly News. They just released a Maya Angelou stamp with one of her quotes. The only problem is, SHE DIDNT WRITE IT. Buhahahahahahah!!!! sorry I think it's funny. That's what happens when stamps are released for PC purposes.
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re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
The picture on the stamp is not very flatting of the lady, IMHO.
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07:09:47pm
re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
I personally think the bar is set WAY TOO LOW as to who makes it onto a stamp.
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re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
While I suspect that the promptness with which a stamp is being issued for Ms. Angelou is the result of a PC attitude, I do believe her contribution to literature will be a lasting one.
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07:31:59pm
re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
Hey Smauggie. I will respect your opinion on that point. I guess it just brings to mind the age old debate of who should and or shouldn't be honored on stamps. It reminds me of something I read the other day. The queen of England had bestowed a very high honor (I can't remember the name) on the Beatles. A group of WW2 vets who had earned the same honor protecting the British people were so offended they boxed up their copy of the same honor and shipped it back.
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re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
Gosh fellas I have to disagree - she was an amazing poet, author and humanitarian and a very wise soul. I love reading her works. No she wasn't a war hero, or a politician or a sports star, she was a genius who touched people with words that expressed the feelings of the human heart. She made the world a better place through kindness and love. I wish stamps honored more people like her who radiate goodness instead of power.
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re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
I agree that Maya Angelou is of the same caliber as Lydia Mendoza, Janis Joplin, Johnny Cash, Charlton Heston, Jimi Hendrix, Ralph Ellison, and Ray Charles. Is she as esteemed as Rosa Parks, Althea Gibson, and Harvey Milk? You decide.
I would be more inclined to criticize the choice of Muscle Cars, Vintage Seed Packets, Harry Potter, and Batman.
JMHO
Lars
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re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
I'm like Rip Van Winkle here, not having paid much attention to stamps since about 1980. Back then collectors were critical of the USPS for excess and unnecessary stamp issues... and from what I see today, we hadn't seen nuthin' yet back then!
I believe the rule was that anyone, other than a president, had to be dead 25 years to qualify for a stamp, to make sure that their memory would be enduring. I guess that rule went out the window long ago. Stamps today are just stickers.
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re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
"I believe the rule was that anyone, other than a president, had to be dead 25 years to qualify for a stamp, to make sure that their memory would be enduring. I guess that rule went out the window long ago. Stamps today are just stickers."
Hendrix, Joplin, and Milk have all been dead at least 25 years, and I have no problem with honoring their contemporaries that weren't assassinated or died of a drug overdose.
There is certainly a point to be made about stamps issued to honor rocks, spiders, and comic book characters, but to say "stamps today are just stickers" ignores the rich history of the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement currently being celebrated.
The date of April 9 will soon be commemorated with the 150th Anniversary of the end of the Civil War. (At least the end of major hostilities and the surrender of Lee's troops). Many Civil Rights marches are at the 50th Anniversary. I would argue that the commemorative issues today are more interesting and poignant that at any other time of our history!
Sure, they are diluted by stupid stamps honoring Batman, and I wish there was a limit of 15-20 commemoratives per year to really focus on the important stuff, but don't toss the baby with the bathwater!
Lars
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re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
I don't have a problem with her being recognized on a stamp. But when, as the OP said, they get the WRONG quote, there's a problem.
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re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
"I don't have a problem with her being recognized on a stamp. But when, as the OP said, they get the WRONG quote, there's a problem."
Agreed, but they didn't quote something she never said, they quoted something she famously repeated. It would have been better to quote an original expression of hers, obviously.
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re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
For those who do not know which quotation has been misattributed, or whose quotation it originally was, some wag has posted this on the internet:
Anglund's words (on the actual stamp) are: "A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song." Angelou's best-known work is entitled I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
Although there's an obvious link, this feels like a genuine USPS error.
I'm not convinced that the stamp reflects an especially PC attitude - there are plenty of black and native American heritage issues which (whatever their quality) are justifiable on grounds of cultural history. Whether Angelou was a sufficiently great writer to warrant a stamp is a different matter: I found her book rather cloying and her 'poem' at Clinton's inauguration even more so. But she is an immensely popular and respected figure on both sides of the Atlantic and that's usually enough to get onto a stamp.
The Beatles' "Member of the Order of the British Empire" (MBE) is in fact the lowest grade of public honour, and was (if memory serves) the first time that figures from popular, working-class culture had ever been recognised in that way. I recall ex-servicemen returning their medals in disgust, but those would not have been MBEs, which are civilian honours. The honouring of figures in popular culture has of course become commonplace since the 1960s, the rationale being the amount of money they bring to the national coffers as much as their supposed ambassadorial qualities.
The Royal Mail does not depict living people on stamps, although collectors delight in spotting identifiable exceptions in group scenes on some issues. Thus significant World War Two figures such as Vera Lynn or Sir Nicholas Winton are still waiting, seventy years on...
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06:23:09am
re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
Thanks to all! I learned some things today.
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They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin
08 Apr 2015
06:56:48am
re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
Prior to 2011, living persons could not be pictured on US stamps and, before 2007, with rare exceptions, a person other than a former President had to have been dead for 10 years before they could be the subject of a stamp (other exceptions were made for extraordinary statesmen such as Dag Hammarskjold, Cordell Hull, etc.). This time period was reduced to 5 years in 2007, and eliminated altogether in 2011.
I am not a fan of Maya Angelou, but recognize her substantial contributions, and believe she more than qualifies for depiction/commemoration on a US postage stamp.
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09:34:18am
re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
Ian, Royal Mail depicts living people on stamps all the time. The royals come to mind.
Regarding the Angelou stamp... do we have a potential recall coming? I haven't heard anything about that.
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re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
Quite right, Michael. An exception is made when considering the royals, as ever. Britain is rather good at doing that.
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
14 Apr 2015
06:53:16pm
re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
Anglo-American culture, customs and conventions are filled with exceptions, anomalies and aberrations.
As soon as some principle is set, and carefully inscribed on flowing water, variations and special cases are sought, discovered and the replacement process begins.
It seems to be a part of our nature and while sometimes confusing, makes every man a potential poet, free to express his ideas in novel ways, every lawyer becomes a potential scholar and every inventive mind about to explode with the totally unforeseen, unexpected and amazing discovery.
Rules are meant to be broken and they so often are, that making a particular rule is an open invitation to find the loophole.
The ten year post-passing rule, with exceptions for recently departing presidents, and oh yes, very famous individuals, no, let's make it five years or, shucks, forget the whole dammed idea.
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07:50:09pm
re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
USPS starting last year chose to ignore the 10-year rule.
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re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
Hi Everyone;
Ellen Degeneres, showed that stamp on her show today at 4PM on CBS. They also made up some additional fake stamps with Eleanor Roosevelt and someone else I can't remember. David Letterman will probably skewer the USPS tonite also. I guess they have to think of some way to get material, since their writers come up with such lame and boring material.
Just thinkin' too much....
TuskenRaider
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re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
Looks like the Post Office missed an opportunity here. According to Time magazine, the stamp won't be corrected and re-issued:
http://time.com/3814888/maya-angelou-stamp-us-postal-service-joan-walsh-anglund/
Just think of the sales they could have made with a controversial error and correction. They could even issue unmarked packets in which the contents are either the error or the correction by random chance. Oh wait, they've already done that...
Somewhat reminiscent of the USPS substituting the Las Vegas version of Lady Liberty on a stamp a few years back.
The general discussion here is a familiar one: the current culture as reflected in stamps (music, television, movies, etc.) is in general pathetic, and is a troubling departure from the culture of the good old days. If we could just get back to the stamps (music, television, movies, etc.) of the good old days, life would again be right. Being mostly a traditionalist, I've certainly had those thoughts. But then I had those same thoughts back in the 1970s. Not about music mind you, my parents had those thoughts about the music I listened to...
I suppose it is just nostalgia that makes me long for a return to the days in which all stamps are both engraved and done with excruciating craftsmanship, a plate block has four stamps, and stamps can be soaked off with tap water. Of course we would also have thriving stamp shops in all metropolitan areas, letters and postcards outnumbering ads in the daily mail, and millions of kids taking up the hobby as both fun and educational. We'd better get ready - we might not even have postal service as we know it today in 30-40 years.
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re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
Hi Everyone;
Does anyone remember a couple years or so ago, the post office issued a stamp with the upside-down pine cones pointing straight up from the branches? Then they were dumb enough to claim that they were correct and that is the correct image?
Just Chillin....
TuskenRaider
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12:26:51am
re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
If they would have waited the formerly 10 years after death to issue the stamp, they probably have gotten it correct, but they were in a rush to get it out.
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re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
"they probably have {sic} gotten it correct"
I dunno. The Grand Canyon formed millions of years ago and USPS tried to put it in Colorado!
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11:26:29pm
re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
LOL. Isn't the picture transposed too?
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re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
Yes, the image was reversed. A Park Ranger caught the error. USPS said they put procedures in place to prevent such errors in the future, but apparently procedures to prevent misattribution of a quote weren't included.
The simple solution is to limit commemoratives to 12 truly worthy subjects per year and spend sufficient time in the vetting process.
Lars
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01:10:11am
re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
One commemorative a month. That would be nice. We had three new stamp issues (7 different stamps) last week! A week or so before that we had the water lilies and the beautifully and most artistic "From Me to You" stamp (5 different stamps).
A couple of weeks, and 12 new stamps, some of which collectors will have to buy in sheets. That was a shot in the wallet to go along with what IRS took on the 15th.
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re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
This is why I have a cutoff date in the 90's. They have just gotten so out of control with new issues, I decided not to play their game anymore.
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re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
Just picked up a sheet of the Maya Angelou stamps today to put on my "trading" mail.
Post Office had plenty of this stamp but not the new Civil War stamps. (?? )
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05:58:21pm
re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
My post office got the Angelou, Civil War and Dog Wood stamps in all on the same day. I love one of the clerks as she cries out to me when she sees me walk into the door whenever she has a new stamp.
She now asks me what the next stamp. I show her the Linns, and she makes sure that they order the stamp.
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re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
I forgot to mention I got the Dogwoods too. Those will look very nice on the trading envelopes.
It's been a good couple years for battle commemoration on stamps, for Civil War and the War of 1812. I'm still bummed that my favorite battlefield, Shiloh, was not given a stamp this time in 2012,though.
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06:22:29pm
re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
Bob. Sent you a PM to tell you about my 6th grade field trip to Shiloh battlefield. Wasn't sure if it would be deemed off topic
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07:45:46pm
re: Maya Angelou Stamp Controversy
Bob, if Shiloh was brought up, probably someone in the USPS said that it was a song by Neil Diamond. Thus, they couldn't do a stamp on it, since he's still alive.
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