The U.S. IGY stamp

The centerpiece of my IGY collection is the U.S. commemorative postage stamp issued during the IGY. I'll introduce the stamp in today's post. In future entries, I'll discuss in more detail various aspects of the stamp, and look at a number of covers (envelopes for postal use) that contain it. And as part of our IGY journey, we'll also look at IGY stamps and covers from other countries.

Most stamp collectors prefer mint (not postally used) stamps, such as shown by the scan of my IGY stamp below. The condition of the back of the stamp is also a concern. More value is attached to fully gummed and unhinged stamps. I know, some of my entries may cause you to think I am unhinged, but in this context it means stamps that were not fixed into albums by using adhesive hinges, which remove some of a stamp's gum and decrease its value. The whole issue of stamp "value" can also be complex, since the personal value attached to a stamp according to the goals of the collector may be separate from its monetary value.

One of my U.S. IGY stamps (1957), Scott #1107, 1.5" x 1"

The Scott stamp catalog is the bible for U.S. collectors. I was fortunate to acquire a full set of six volumes from the bookstore at the American Philatelic Center in Bellefonte, PA, during a visit. It was a few years old, from 2008, but that year gets me through the 50th anniversary of the IGY. Below is a scan of the basic info on the U.S. IGY stamp:

Scan from my Scott 2008 Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps and Covers

The key information contained in a Scott catalog listing is described in this tutorial from the catalog: Understanding the Listings .

The information for the IGY stamp is this as follows:

1. Scott catalog USA stamp number - 1107

2. Illustration number - A554 (illustration caption is 'Solar Disc and Hands from Michelangelo's Creation of Adam" '. A later post will have more to say about the design of this stamp.

3. Listing styles - here just a Major listing of 1107

4. Denomination - 3¢

5. Basic information on stamp
        GEOPHYSICAL YEAR ISSUE 
        International Geophysical Year 1957-58
        Designed by Ervine Metzl
        GIORI Press Printing
        Plates of 200 subjects in four panes of 50
        Perf. 11 (perforations are the little holes that allow stamps 
            to be separated, in this case 11 per 2 cm)

6. Color - black & red orange

7. Date of issue - May 31, 1958

8. Catalog values
        Unused - 20¢
        Used - 20¢
        Plate block (P#) of 4, unused - 40¢

A few items of interest about this stamp:

1. It was issued one day after my 8th birthday.

2. This was the fourth U.S. stamp (after Scott #1094 Old Glory, #1096 Magsaysay, and #1098 whooping cranes) printed using the engravure/intaglio method by the Giori Press, which allowed for simultaneous application of two or three differently colored inks. 

3. It was one of the last three U.S. stamps issued with a 3¢ denomination. The rate for first-class postage had been unchanged since 1932, but went to 4¢ on August 1, 1958. The Scott catalog also includes a history of postage rates, showing that this 26-year period was the longest in U.S. postal history with no rate change.

4. The Scott catalog also lists elsewhere the quantity of each commemorative stamp issued. Over 125,000,000 subjects of the IGY stamp were printed, for a U.S. population in 1958 of 175 million people. This was a typical run for that era. Up until then, the largest quantity printing had been 2.9 billion for #1008, the NATO issue (1952), followed by 2 billion for #732, the National Recovery Act issue (1933). For comparison, the biggest seller in U.S. postal history was the Elvis Presley stamp (#2721, 1993) at 517 million copies.

Addendum (Dec. 5, 2020): The relationship between stamps printed, sold and saved seems a bit complicated. The number of stamps printed is shown, for example, in the Scott catalogs. As a 2001 report from the USPS Office of Inspector General describes, stamps from local post offices can be returned and destroyed, perhaps on the order of one billion per year. Of course, some stamps that are bought are never used, and can be channeled to collectors like us. This random-ish post says that the popularity of stamps is assessed by the number of stamps saved, determined via an annual survey by the U.S. Postal Service of 10,000 households. I have not found a verification of that, which seems to be different from the USPS Household Diary Study.