About This Stamp
In 2012, the U.S. Postal Service completes its Flags of Our Nation series with the issuance of the last set of ten stamp designs. The stamps in Set 6 feature the flag of the U.S. Virgin Islands, the state flags of Texas through Wyoming, and the Stars and Stripes, the last stamp — which was also the first stamp — in this series that began in 2008. In all, sixty stamps were issued in six separate sets of ten designs. The format for each set of ten designs was a coil of fifty stamps.
In the aggregate, the sixty stamps in the Flags of Our Nation series include four depicting the Stars and Stripes, fifty featuring official state flags, and one for each of the following: the territories of American Samoa and Guam, the commonwealths of the Northern Mariana Islands and Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
In addition to the flag art, each stamp design includes artwork that provides a “snapshot view” of the state or other area represented by that flag. In most cases, an everyday scene or activity is shown, but occasionally the view is of something less commonplace — rare wildlife, perhaps, or a stunning vista. Unlike some previous multi-stamp issuances, this series was not limited to official animals, flowers, or products, nor was it meant to showcase well-known buildings, landmarks, or monuments.
“Snapshot” art for each of the four Stars and Stripes stamps in the series was inspired by the opening lines of “America the Beautiful,” written by Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929). The 2012 stamp art depicts “the fruited plain.”
The stamps in Set 6 of the Flags of Our Nation series are being issued as Forever® stamps. Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce rate.
Stamp Art Director, Stamp Designer
Howard E. Paine
A member of the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee before being named an art director in 1981, Howard E. Paine supervised the design of more than 400 U.S. postage stamps. After three decades as an art director for the U.S. Postal Service, he retired in 2011.
For more than 30 years Paine was an art director for the National Geographic Society, where he redesigned National Geographic magazine, developed the children’s magazine, National Geographic World, and designed Explorers Hall. A popular lecturer, he has spoken at Yale University and New York University, among others, and presented programs for the National Park Service and the Smithsonian Institution. A judge for numerous art shows and design competitions, Paine also taught magazine design at The George Washington University.
Paine had been a stamp collector since childhood. In 2000, he designed the catalog for Pushing The Envelope: The Art of the Postage Stamp, an exhibit of original stamp art at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Howard Paine died on September 13, 2014.
Stamp Artist
Tom Engeman
Nationally acclaimed artist Tom Engeman, a resident of Kensington, Maryland, is well known for his poster and stamp designs. The winner of numerous design awards, he lists among his career accomplishments being the first art director for Washingtonian magazine, designing Historic Preservation magazine, and creating posters for the Metro, Washington’s new subway system, which were stolen as soon as they went up.
Among his many designs for the U.S. Postal Service are the Liberty Bell Forever® stamp, 60 stamps for the Flags of Our Nation series that began in 2008, and eight butterfly-themed stamps, the first issued in 2010, intended for use on large greeting card envelopes and other mail of nonstandard shapes and sizes. Engeman's most recent butterfly stamp design is Colorado Hairstreak (2021).