Updated January 4th New FDC mail-in address for non-dealers:
FDOI-LNY: Rooster
Stamp Fulfillment Services
8300 NE Underground Drive, Suite 300
Kansas City, MO 64144-9900
Updated December 9th Here is the Digital Color Postmark for this issue: 
It measures 2.94″ x 1.31″. There is also a “special” postmark that local stations may use: 
It measures 2.98″ x 1.50″.
Updated December 9th From the Postal Bulletin:
On January 5, 2017, in Seattle, WA, the U.S. Postal Service will issue the Year of the Rooster First-Class Mail stamp (Forever priced at 47 cents), in one design, in a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) pane of 12 stamps (Item 552000). The Year of the Rooster $5.64 pane of 12 stamps may not be split, and the stamps may not be sold individually.
The stamp will go on sale nationwide January 5, 2017.
The Year of the Rooster stamp is the tenth of 12 stamps in the Celebrating Lunar New Year series. The Year of the Rooster begins on January 28, 2017, and ends on February 15, 2018. The stamp art depicts a rooster emblazoned on a red envelope (hongbao). Parents present red envelopes containing money to children and loved ones during Lunar New Year celebrations. The color red symbolizes luck in Chinese culture, while rooster imagery is often used to ward off evil spirits. The characters at the top of the envelope form a common Chinese greeting of celebration and wish for prosperity and good fortune, used most frequently during Lunar New Year. Artist Kam Mak created this original painting. Art director and stamp designer Ethel Kessler incorporated elements from the previous series of Lunar New Year stamps — Clarence Lee’s intricate cut-paper design of a rooster and the Chinese character for “rooster,” drawn in grass-style calligraphy by Lau Bun — to create continuity between the stamps in the series.
Stamp Fulfillment Services will make an automatic push distribution to Post Offices of a quantity to cover approximately 30 days of sales.
How to Order the First-Day-of-Issue Postmark:
Customers have 60 days to obtain the first-day-of-issue postmark by mail. They may purchase new stamps at their local Post Office, at The Postal Store website at www.usps.com/shop, or by calling 800-782-6724. They should affix the stamps to envelopes of their choice, address the envelopes (to themselves or others), and place them in a larger envelope addressed to:
Year of the Rooster
Stamp Fulfillment Services
Cancellation Services
8300 NE Underground Drive, Pillar 210
Kansas City, MO 64144-9998
After applying the first-day-of-issue postmark, the Postal Service will return the envelopes through the mail. There is no charge for the postmark up to a quantity of 50. There is a 5-cent charge for each additional postmark over 50. All orders must be postmarked by March 5, 2017. There will be a digital color postmark for this issue.
Only the pictorial postmark shown here is permitted for the Year of the Rooster stamp. The word “Station” or the abbreviation “STA” is required somewhere in the design, because it will be a temporary station.
There are eight philatelic products for this stamp issue:
- 552006, Press Sheet with Die-cut, $33.84
- 552010 Digital Color Postmark Keepsake (2 panes), $12.95
- 552016 First-Day Cover, $0.91
- 552018 First-Day Cover Full Pane, $8.14
- 552019 Cancelled Full Pane, $8.14
- 552021 Digital Color Postmark, $1.62
- 552024 Framed Art, $39.95
- 552030 Ceremony Program, $6.95
Technical Specifications:
Issue: Year of the Rooster Stamp
Item Number: 552000
Denomination & Type of Issue: First-Class Mail Forever
Format: Pane of 12 (1 design)
Series: Celebrating Lunar New Year
Issue Date & City: January 5, 2017, Seattle, WA 98134
Designer: Ethel Kessler, Bethesda, MD
Art Director: Ethel Kessler, Bethesda, MD
Typographer: Ethel Kessler, Bethesda, MD
Artist: Kam Mak, Brooklyn, NY
Modeler: Sandra Lane/Michelle Finn
Manufacturing Process: Offset, Microprint
Printer: Banknote Corporation of America
Printed at: Browns Summit, NC
Press Type: Alprinta 74
Stamps per Pane: 12
Print Quantity: 15 million stamps
Paper Type: Phosphor Tagged Paper, Block
Adhesive Type: Pressure-sensitive
Processed at: Banknote Corporation of America, Browns Summit SC
Colors: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, PMS 872/Gold
Stamp Orientation: Horizontal
Image Area (w x h): 1.42 x 0.84 in./36.07 x 21.34 mm
Overall Size (w x h): 1.56 x 0.98 in./39.62 x 24.89 mm
Full Pane Size (w x h): 7.24 x 5.92 in./183.90 x 150.37 mm
Press Sheets Size (w x h): 21.97 x 11.97 in./ 558.04 x 303.91 mm
Plate Size: 144 stamps per revolution
Plate Numbers: N/A
Marginal Markings:
Back: © 2016 USPS • USPS logo • Barcode (552000) • Promotional text • Verso: Celebrating Lunar New Year text
Updated December 6th from the USPS: The stamp will be issued January 6th in Seattle. The USPS press release:
Postal Service to Celebrate 2017 Lunar New Year Issuing Year of the Rooster Forever Stamp
What:
The U.S. Postal Service rings in the Year of the Rooster by issuing the tenth of 12 stamps in the Celebrating Lunar New Year series. The Year of the Rooster begins on Jan. 28, 2017 and ends on Feb. 15, 2018.
Who:
- Greg G. Graves, vice president Area Operations – Western Area, United States Postal Service
- Yibo Lu, director, Chinese Radio Seattle’s CRS Office
- Beth Takekawa, executive director, The Wing Luke Museum
- Ron Chew, CEO, Chew Communications
- Assunta Ng, founder and publisher, Seattle Chinese Post and Northwest Asian Weekly
When:
Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017, 11:30 a.m.
Where:
Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience
719 S. King Street
Seattle, WA 98104
Background:
The most important holiday of the year for many Asian communities around the world, the Lunar New Year is celebrated primarily by people of Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tibetan and Mongolian heritage.
In the United States and elsewhere, the occasion is marked in various ways across many cultures; parades featuring enormous and vibrantly painted papier-maacute;ché dragons, parties, and other special events are common. Vendors at outdoor markets sell flowers, toys, food, and other items for celebration. Musicians play drums to celebrate this time of renewed hope for the future.
Many families present red envelopes (hongbao), like the one depicted in the stamp art, containing money to children and loved ones.
Art director Ethel Kessler worked on the series with illustrator Kam Mak, a Hong Kong-born artist who grew up in New York City’s Chinatown and now lives in Brooklyn. The artwork focuses on some of the common ways the Lunar New Year holiday is celebrated. For the Year of the Rooster, the illustration -originally created using oil paints on panel – depicts a colorful rooster emblazoned on a red envelope (hongbao). Parents present red envelopes containing money to children and loved ones during Lunar New Year celebrations. The color red symbolizes luck in Chinese culture, while rooster imagery is often used to ward off evil spirits. The characters at the top of the envelope form a common Chinese greeting of celebration and wish for prosperity and good fortune, used most frequently during Lunar New Year.
From the USPS, September 20, 2016:
The Year of the Rooster stamp is the 10th of 12 stamps in the Celebrating Lunar New Year series. The Year of the Rooster begins Jan. 28, 2017, and ends Feb. 15, 2018. The stamp depicts a rooster emblazoned on a red envelope (hongbao). Parents present red envelopes containing money to children and loved ones during Lunar New Year celebrations. The color red symbolizes luck in Chinese culture, while rooster imagery is often used to ward off evil spirits. Artist Kam Mak created this original painting. Art director and stamp designer Ethel Kessler incorporated elements from the previous series of Lunar New Year stamps — Clarence Lee’s intricate cut-paper design of a rooster and the Chinese character for “rooster,” drawn in grass-style calligraphy by Lau Bun — to create continuity in the series.
Comment: This is the first of the Kam Mak-designed Lunar New Year stamps that shows the Zodiac animal.
It measures 3.0″ x 1.5″.
BACKGROUND:
All but two of the issues appear to be what the USPS calls (or has called) “mail-use:” Issues for specific rates (Uncle Sam’s Hat, additional ounces; California Dogface Butterfly, nonmachineable surcharge rate) or will be issued as booklets for the non-collecting mailing public: sharks, flowers, flag, and so on. The John F. Kennedy stamp design is in the definitive format (height/width ratio). [In response to an e-mailed question, the USPS said that the JFK stamp is “a semi-jumbo stamp” with “a similar aspect ratio to our “special” sized stamps, but is proportionally larger.”] The exceptions are Fr. Theodore Hesburgh, although that may be a two-ounce stamp, and the museum.
The United States entered “the War to End All Wars” — World War I — in 1917. Some historians feel this was the point at which the U.S. became a major world power, because the Americans turned the tide in the war. It would be shocking if the USPS does not issue at least one stamp for this historical event, and surprising if not several. (Israel’s 2016 stamp is shown on the left.)
This stamp celebrates the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Occupying a 5-acre site on the National Mall in Washington, DC. The museum is the 19th Smithsonian museum and the only national museum devoted exclusively to African-American life, art, history and culture. The stamp is based on a photograph of the museum by Alan Karchmer showing a view of the northwest corner of the building. Text in the upper left corner reads “National Museum of African American History and Culture.” Art director Antonio Alcalá designed the stamp.
The Postal Service celebrates posters of the Work Projects Administration (WPA), striking and utilitarian artworks created by the Poster Division of the WPA Federal Art Project. Each stamp features a vibrant example of the posters conceived and printed in workshops across the nation under the WPA, a broad-reaching program that provided millions of jobs during the Great Depression. Formed in 1935 as the Works Progress Administration and renamed the Work Projects Administration in 1939, the WPA lasted until 1943. Poster images are from Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, WPA Poster Collection. Antonio Alcalá served as the art director and designed the stamps with Maribel O. Gray.
This issuance celebrates the wonder of sharks with a pane of 20 stamps featuring realistic images of five species that inhabit American waters: mako shark, represented here by a shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus); thresher shark, here a pelagic thresher (Alopias pelagicus); great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias); whale shark (Rhincodon typus); and hammerhead shark, this one a scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini). Art director Derry Noyes designed the stamp pane with original artwork by Sam Weber.
With the new U.S. Flag stamp, the Postal Service continues its tradition of celebrating patriotism with one of the most recognizable symbols of the nation. The stamp features a detail from a photograph of the billowing Stars and Stripes. Terrence W. McCaffrey was the art director and Greg Breeding designed the stamp with an existing photograph of the flag taken by Tom Grill.
The Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh (1917-2015) was an important mid-20th century educational, religious and civic leader. The stamp features an oil-on-panel painting of Father Hesburgh standing on the University of Notre Dame campus, where he served as president for 35 years. Appointed to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in 1957, Father Hesburgh helped compile reports on racial discrimination and the denial of voting rights that resulted in the Omnibus Civil Rights Act of 1964. A champion of causes ranging from education to immigration reform to the plight of underdeveloped nations, Father Hesburgh worked with many important organizations that reflected his beliefs. Art director Ethel Kessler designed the stamp with original art by Tim O’Brien.
Flowers from the Garden features new stamps with four different paintings of flowers that come from typical American gardens, each bunch artfully arranged. One stamp features red camellias and yellow forsythia in a yellow pitcher, while on another there are white peonies and pink tree peonies in a clear vase. An arrangement of white hydrangeas, white and pink roses, green hypericum berries, and purple lisianthus in a white vase graces another stamp, while blue hydrangeas in a blue pot appear on another. Art director Derry Noyes designed the stamps with existing art by Elizabeth Brandon.
With the release of the new Delicioso Forever stamps, the Postal Service celebrates the influence of Central and South American, Mexican and Caribbean foods on American cuisine. This booklet of 20 stamps features six dishes from an array of Latin American culinary traditions that have found new life and variations in the United States. Each stamp showcases a bright and playful illustration of one of the following dishes: tamales, flan, sancocho, empanadas, chile relleno and ceviche. The names of the six dishes appear in a festive font above each image. Artist John Parra designed the stamps under the direction of Antonio Alcalá.
With the release of Uncle Sam’s Hat in 2017, the Postal Service celebrates one of the country’s most popular patriotic characters. Known especially for his large top hat decorated in varying patterns of stars and stripes, Uncle Sam has represented the bravery and fortitude of the American spirit for more than 150 years. The stamp features eight graphic top hats in Uncle Sam’s signature style. Red and white vertical stripes extend above a blue band with a white star and a gray brim. Beneath each hat is an oval shape representing a face, each in a different shade, meant to suggest the ethnic and racial diversity of the United States. Art director Antonio Alcalá designed the stamp. The words “ADDITIONAL OUNCE” on this stamp indicate its usage value. Like a Forever stamp, this stamp will always be valid for the rate printed on it.
Four new postcard stamps celebrate the wonder of seashells. Each stamp depicts an iconic shell found in North American waters: the alphabet cone, the Pacific calico scallop, the zebra nerite, and the Queen conch, commonly known as the pink conch. The highly stylized stamp art expresses a lighthearted artistic view of shells. Horizontal swaths of white and blue in the background suggest waves washing the shells onto a beach. Art director Greg Breeding designed the stamps. Sergio Baradat created the stamp art.
The California dogface graces the seventh non-machineable butterfly stamp for use on irregularly sized envelopes, such as square greeting cards, invitations or announcements. The stamp is a highly stylized, simplified image of a California dogface (Zerene eurydice) Ñ named for the forewing markings of the male butterfly, which bear a pattern that resembles a poodle head in profile. Greeting card envelopes printed with a silhouette of a butterfly indicate the need for additional postage or the use of a butterfly stamp. Tom Engeman created the stamp andÊ art director Derry Noyes designed it.
The Postal Service celebrates a favorite backyard bird on this Barn Swallow stamped envelope. It features a large illustration of a barn swallow perching and a smaller illustration above it, showing the bird in flight. The barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) originally nested in caves. As man-made structures began to dot the North American landscape, barn swallows adapted by building their mud nests under the eaves of barns, houses and bridges. Barn swallows are acrobatic flyers, and a single bird can catch and consume thousands of insects in one day. Art director William J. Gicker designed the stamp with original art by Matthew Frey.
The National Postal Museum offers a series of public lectures and programs welcoming the National Museum of African American History and Culture to the Smithsonian family! In keeping with the new museum’s location in one of America’s most famous national parks—the National Mall—these programs will feature park rangers and other speakers spotlighting National Park Service sites associated with African American history. Many of these NPS sites are also featured in the National Postal Museum’s current exhibition Trailblazing: 100 Years of Our National Parks, on view until March 25, 2018.
Evening Program
January 9 
OTTAWA, SEPT. 8, 2016 /CNW/ – Don’t give up the ghosts – another fright-filled adventure is yours to enjoy in Canada Post’s latest collection of five Haunted Canada stamps. [The stamps were issued September 8th. —VSC]
The Bell Island Hag – Bell Island, N.L. The spirit, it is said, dwells in the marshes near Dobbin’s Garden and appears to a lone person, overpowering him or her with her stench. As she covers her victim with her cowl, she always hisses the same words: “No one came to help me when I died in that swamp. No one will help you. Now taste what I tasted and smell what I smelled as my life was taken from me.” The victim is found hours later, unconscious and reeking of death.
The Dungarvon Whooper – Renous, N.B. Lumberjacks returned from work one day to discover their young cook dead and his money belt missing – apparently the work of the camp boss. The cook was quickly buried as a snowstorm blew in, and in the night, terrifying whoops and wails issued from his shallow grave. The lumberjacks fled in terror, never to return. To this day, Miramichi residents claim to hear the cook’s mournful cries, despite the efforts of a priest to quiet the grave years after the suspected murder.
The Lady in White – Montmorency Falls, Que. Hidden in the roar of Montmorency Falls are the cries of La Dame blanche (the Lady in White) calling out for her lost love. It was at the falls that Mathilde Robin’s fiancé, Louis Tessier, had courted her. Little did the betrothed couple know that Louis was soon to perish in battle during the Seven Years’ War. Overwhelmed with grief at the news of this death, Mathilde donned her wedding gown and tossed herself into the raging cataract.
The Phantom Bell Ringers of the Kirk of St. James – Charlottetown In the early morning of October 7, 1853, a sea captain was mystified to hear what sounded like the clanging of a ship’s bell coming from the town centre. He made his way to the Kirk of St. James, where he and the church keeper spied four women, one peering down from the belfry. The two men pursued the women up to the tower but found nothing except the bell, still vibrating. Later that day, the Fairy Queen mail steamer sank in stormy seas, with seven lives lost, including four women – three were members of the congregation of the Kirk of St. James.
The Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre – Toronto Staff and patrons have witnessed all manner of apparitions and otherworldly events in the restored theatre centre. A woman dressed in Edwardian dress has reportedly appeared in the lobby, while the hand-operated elevators have been seen stopping of their own accord at various floors. And be careful where you sit – the seats in the Winter Garden Theatre have flipped down and back up, as if unseen audience members had sat down and got up again. Or so they say.
The stamps measure 32 mm x 32 mm and are available in booklets of 10. They were designed by Lionel Gadoury and printed by Colour Innovations in five colours with a holographic foil. The issue also includes a souvenir sheet of five stamps measuring 127 mm x 73 mm, an Official First Day Cover (above) cancelled in Renous, N.B., and an uncut press sheet (below) measuring 650 mm x 480 mm. There are also five postage-paid postcards (available individually or as a set of five) and a Haunted Canada gift set of coin and stamps. 
5098 (25¢) Star Quilt coil stamp, heart quilting in corners
5101 (47¢) 1938 International Harvester D-2 Pickup Truck booklet stamp
According to the Smithsonian National Postal Museum, Daniel Piazza (right), chief curator of philately, and Calvin Mitchell (left), assistant curator of philately, are the recipients of the 2016 Smithsonian Secretary’s Research Prizes for their exhibit and catalog, “Freedom Just Around the Corner: Black America from Civil War to Civil Rights.”
American History from 8:30 to 10:15 a.m.
