A 20-stamps booklet of North American frogs arrives July 9 in Boise, Idaho. The booklet will contain five stamps of each of four designs featuring digital illustrations of four types of frog: the Pacific tree frog; the northern leopard frog; the American green tree frog; and the squirrel tree frog.
Working with a primarily green color palette and touches of brown, artist Nancy Stahl captured the essence of each animal with enough important defining features to make each recognizable to the knowledgeable herpetologist. Art director William J. Gicker designed the stamps.
Given that there are 75 species of frog in the United States including Hawaii, you might imagine that they would be more commonly seen on U.S. stamps, but like those that may live down by your local creeks and ponds, America’s philatelic frogs seem to stay largely out of sight, with toads about equally represented.
The 2002 Longleaf Pine Forest Nature of America pane of 10 included a 34¢ stamp depicting a pine woods treefrog basking below a sweetbay blossom (Scott 3611h), a 37¢ ornate chorus frog was included in a 2003 set of five Reptiles and Amphibians (Scott 3817), and the world’s most famous frog popped out among his fellow fabric and foam pals in the 2005 Jim Henson and the Muppets commemorative pane of 11 (Scott 3944a).
The Frog booklet stamps are being issued as Forever stamps, which will always be equal in value to the First-Class Mail 1-ounce price, currently 55¢. Additional first-day details were not yet available when this issue went to press, nor were the technical specifications for this issue.
Customers will have 120 days to obtain the first-day-of-issue postmark by mail. They may purchase new stamps at their post office or at usps.com/shop. They must affix the stamps to envelopes of their choice, address the envelopes to themselves or others, and place them in a larger envelope bearing sufficient postage and addressed to:
FDOI — Frogs Stamps
Stamp Fulfillment Services
8300 NE Underground Drive, Suite 300
Kansas City, MO 64144-9900
After applying the first-day-of-issue postmark, the USPS will return the envelopes through the mail. There is no charge for up to 50 postmarks, but there is a 5¢ charge for each additional postmark over 50. All orders must be postmarked by November 9, 2019.
Frogs on previous U.S. stamps include a 34¢ a pine woods treefrog on a 2002 Longleaf Pine Forest pane (Scott 3611h), a 37¢ ornate chorus frog in a 2003 Reptiles and Amphibians set (Scott 3817) and a 37¢ Kermit from a 2005 Jim Henson and the Muppets pane (Scott 3944a).
