American Notes

What could be more all-American than a U.S. postage stamp series that features the faces of great Americans? Almost anything. In a move that stirred outrage among patriotic philatelists, the U.S. Postal Service disclosed last week that two issues from the series will be printed in Canada. This marks the first time U.S. postage will be printed abroad. One stamp bears the likeness of the late New Mexico Senator Dennis Chavez. The other depicts former Chief Justice Earl Warren.

The work moved north after the Postal Service decided to farm out the job to Stamp Venturers of Fairfax, Va. The firm, in turn, apparently decided that no printing company in the U.S. could perform the work. But patriots, take heart! The stamps will be printed on American-made paper.