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Getting serious about Series

The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries.

Many U-S stamps are part of series – stamps with the same theme or general subject,
often matching somewhat in design.

One of the classics for U-S stamps was the Presidential Series of 1938, which featured
each man on the appropriate denomination. So, for example, George Washington was on the
one-cent, Abraham Lincoln on the 16-cent.

Some series have one stamp a year, some more, some less.

The Ingrid Bergman stamp is the 19th in the Legends of Hollywood series, which began with
Marilyn Monroe 20 years ago. The series skipped two years before resuming last year with
Charlton Heston.

The U-S is currently running its second Lunar New Year series, but there was a gap between
the two.

So far, there have been two Music Icons stamps each year, but no guarantees.

There are also several informal series on-going right now, with no names or schedules,
and some irregular series. And there’s something called “Distinguished Americans” at odd
rates which seems to be a catch-all for people the Postal Service doesn’t think are
“commercial” enough for commemoratives.

Probably the longest running and most regular series, though, is Black Heritage: It began
in 1978, and the Postal Service hasn’t missed a year yet – 38 stamps, all at the letter
rate, all vertical format.

I'm Lloyd de Vries of The Virtual Stamp Club. For more on stamps and stamp collecting,
visit virtual-stamp-club-dot-com.

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