America Voted: Mister Rogers Just Beat Batman, Snoopy, And George Washington

The United States Postal Service asked more than half a million Americans to choose their favorite stamp from a field of 25 beloved designs, giving them the chance to vote one back into circulation, and the competition included Cleopatra, Snoopy, Batman, Wonder Woman, Bugs Bunny, Star Trek, and George Washington himself. It was not particularly close. The 2018 Mister Rogers commemorative stamp won by more than 40,000 votes, and the announcement was made this week at the Boston 2026 World Exposition, where the USPS has been celebrating its 250th anniversary alongside the country's own 250th birthday. The original stamp features a warm photograph by Walt Seng of Rogers in his red cardigan alongside King Friday XIII, the beloved puppet ruler of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, and it was first released in 2018 before selling out completely within just a few weeks on a print run that the Postal Service had thought would be enormous at 12 million copies. They were not prepared for Mister Rogers.

The reissue arrives as a pane of 20 Forever stamps and is accompanied by an entirely new four-image souvenir sheet designed by USPS art director Derry Noyes, featuring additional Seng photographs with more characters from the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, a keepsake that has never existed before. The souvenir sheet will be available as a pane of four Forever stamps. Both become available nationwide at Post Office locations and online starting June 1. Noyes, who designed the original stamp, said the best she could do as a graphic designer was portray Fred Rogers clearly and straightforwardly, without special gimmicks, just as he would have wanted, and that the appeal of the stamp is simply the appeal of the man. The USPS chief processing officer said that Rogers took them by surprise in 2018 in the most wonderful way, selling out in weeks, and that the result of this vote makes clear that his universal appeal has not dimmed by a single watt in the years since.

Source:https://www.wdsu.com/article/mister-rogers-stamp-reissued-usps-contest/71396683