According to BeyondthePerf.com, a web extension of the USA Philatelic catalog, the stamp is meant to resemble a 45 rpm record sleeve. The black-and-white portrait of Cash featured on the stamp was taken by Frank Bez in 1963, during a photo shoot for "Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash."
USPS representative Mark Saunders said that Cash is the first of three performing artists announced in the series. The other two will be revealed later this year.
The process for selecting topics for its stamps can be a long one for the USPS.
"We get about 40,000 suggestions for stamp ideas each year but only about 20 topics make the cut," Saunders said. "These suggestions are reviewed by the Postmaster General’s Citizens’ Stamp Advisory whose role is to narrow down that 40,000 to roughly 20 and then provide their recommendations to the Postmaster General for final approval."
A release date for the stamp has not been announced.
A well-deserved tribute to Johnny Cash (The Man in Black) whose stamp may put the postal service "back in the black".
ReplyDeleteIt'll probably be issued in September, the tenth anniversary of Cash's death. (Postal regulations say a person has to be deceased for ten years in order to be on a postage stamp [excepting presidents, who are eligible one year after their deaths].)
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anonymous's comment. The biggest-selling postage stamp of all time is the Elvis stamp, with over 540,000,000. This stamp might give Elvis a run for his money.
While Johnny Cash and Elvis have their respected stamps, since probably 1990 or 91 we have been asking and petitioning Roy Orbison to have his own, and yet its gone unheard, is it possible this year he may be one of the other two, Roy ranks up there with Elvis and Cash, and deserves it.
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