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Free Flag Album Pages
Just in time for the nationwide release of the first 10 commemorative-size coil stamps in the series, the American Philatelic Society is pleased to make available color album pages for the new 42-cent Flags of Our Nation stamps.According to "the Nation's Stamp Club," the four full-color pages offer collectors two options: Single stamps, or two strips of five.
On the first three pages, collectors can mount single stamps adjacent to state outline maps and text giving the date and order of statehood, and the state motto, flower, bird, and tree. Space and descriptive text also have been provided for the United States flag and the flag of American Samoa that are included among the first ten stamps in the series.
The fourth page has space for two coil strips of five and an outline map of the United States indicating the location of the eight states whose flags are included in the June 14 release.
Collectors who wish to do so can print all four pages, mounting the stamps individually as well as in strips. Or they can print out just the pages they want.
The pages are available as a pdf file that can be downloaded for free at stamps.org/Albums/Flags.pdf. The pages have been created for free use in the public domain by the APS.
First announced by the U.S. Postal Service in August 2007, these Flags of Our Nation stamps are the first 10 in a three-year, 60-stamp program that will include stamps showing flags of every state of the union plus a miniature scene from each state, along with flags representing the District of Columbia, five U.S. territories and four United States Flag stamps. The stamps will be released ten at a time with eight State Flag stamps per release, in alphabetical order in 50 stamp coil rolls at the rate of two releases per year from now until 2010.
Collectors, including the APS Board of Directors, have long urged the Postal Service to issue commemorative-size coils that are the width of two definitive-size coil stamps, and therefore have a much larger available image area to present a printed subject. Ironically, the first U.S. Flag stamp issued in approximately these dimensions was neither a commemorative nor a coil, but the 22-cent Flag Over Capitol booklet stamp released in 1985.
Flags have been familiar fixtures on U.S. stamps since they first appeared on the 10-cent and 30-cent denominations in the first Pictorial Issue in 1869. Featured on many U.S. commemorative stamps and sets, U.S. flags also have been featured on U.S. regular issues for the past 45 years, ever since the 5-cent Flag Over White House stamp was issued in 1963.