The Project Mercury and MESSENGER Mission stamps were designed by Donato Giancola of Brooklyn, New York, under the direction of Phil Jordan of Falls Church, Virginia. A three-time winner of the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist, Giancola is known for his cover illustrations for science fiction authors, including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Phillip K. Dick, and Arthur C. Clarke. His luminous works for J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings have received recognition through more than a dozen awards.
Giancola based the stamp designs on NASA photographs and images. The Project Mercury stamp depicts Shepard, the Mercury capsule Freedom 7, and the Redstone launching rocket. The MESSENGER Mission stamp depicts the MESSENGER spacecraft in orbit around the planet Mercury.
These stamps are being issued as Forever® stamps. Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce rate.
Technical details:
- Date of issue: 4/May/2011
- Printing process: Offset/Microprint “USPS”
- Stamp size: 39.62mm x 24.89mm
- Stamps per pane: 20 (2 designs)
- Edition: 60 million
Source
USPS. Postal Bulletin (22308), 7/Apr/2011. Pag. 45.
2011, Beyond the perf. USA Philatelic. Consulted 30/Apr/2011.
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