The early 1970s were a boom time for postage stamps. The U.S. Postal Service, which had reorganized itself at the beginning of the decade, cranked up production and was releasing ever more—and ever more interesting—designs.
“Larger stamps, with more color, and many varieties of novelty, seem to be the order of the day,” wrote Boys Life in 1972. Where collectors once had to choose largely between different versions of the same great men, they could now get women, animals, buildings, and more.Despite all these riches, there was still one topic you couldn’t collect a stamp about: stamp collecting. To a certain segment of enthusiasts, this was a disappointment. According to R.R. Higgins—author of the column “The Stamp Man,” which ran in the The Republic newspaper of Columbus, Indiana—philatelists frequently wrote in to the USPS specifically to request a stamp-collecting stamp.
So in October of 1972, the Postal Service announced that they would soon throw a bone to this particular species of loyal customer. The next month—on the 125th anniversary of the very first official U.S. postage stamp—they would release a commemorative stamp to honor stamp collecting. They hired one Frank E. Livia to design it, and it would cost eight cents. They even invented a new size for it: “semi-jumbo,” a compromise between the normal commemorative size and the “jumbo” size, which had recently been invented for a wildlife-themed set.
This news pleased collectors. “Stamp collecting, the hobby of millions in this country, gets its due recognition,” opined the Associated Press. “The thought occurs to me that it is also being issued during Thanksgiving season,” wrote Higgins. “No doubt the USPS is… issuing up prayers of Thanksgiving for the money…
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