Announced by the USPS on October 24, 2022.
School Bus will be a new additional-ounce stamp, available in panes of 20 and coils of 100. The issuance celebrates the iconic yellow school bus and its role in ensuring that millions of children get to school and home again every day. The stamp features a stylized illustration of a 21st century yellow school bus, in profile in front of a silhouetted schoolhouse that is more evocative of an earlier era. Artist Steve Wolf worked with art director Greg Breeding and stamp designer Mike Ryan.
New information will appear below the line, with the most recent at the top.
Updated March 9th:
The image size for the stamps in the coil of 100 was corrected. The revised information is incorporated in the table below.
Updated January 13th:
I was surprised at how the coil version is set up: Vertically, but attached at the top and bottom of the design. Also note that the length/width ratio is different in the sheet and coil versions. (You can click on the picture on the right for a bigger version.)
Updated December 28th:
The First Day Of Issue “killer bars” is the only postmark for this issue.
Updated December 5th from the Postal Bulletin:
On January 5, 2023, in High Point, NC, the United States Postal Service® will issue the School Bus stamp (Non-denominated Additional Ounce Rate) in one design, in a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) pane of 20 (Item 122400) and coil of 100 (Item 740500). This stamp will go on sale nationwide January 5, 2023, and must not be sold or canceled before the first-day-of-issue.
With the release of this new additional ounce stamp, the Postal Service™ celebrates the iconic yellow school bus and its role in ensuring that millions of children get to school and home again every day. The stamp features a stylized illustration of a 21st century yellow school bus, in profile, in front of a silhouetted schoolhouse that is more evocative of an earlier era. Artist Steve Wolf worked with art director Greg Breeding and designer Mike Ryan to create this stamp, which will be issued in panes of 20 and coils of 100.
Item 122400, School Bus, PSA Pane of 20 Stamps
Item 740500, School Bus, PSA Coil of 100 Stamps
No automatic distribution.
How to Order the First-Day-of-Issue Postmark:
Customers have 120 days to obtain the first-day-of-issue postmark by mail. Each cover must have sufficient postage to meet First-Class Mail® requirements. They may purchase new stamps at their local Post Office™ or at The Postal Store® website at store.usps.com/store/home. They must affix the stamps to envelopes of their choice, address the envelopes (to themselves or others), and place them in a larger envelope addressed to:
FDOI – School Bus Stamp
USPS Stamp Fulfillment Services
8300 NE Underground Drive, Suite 300
Kansas City, MO 64144-9900
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 May 5, 2023.
Technical Specifications – Pane of 20:
Issue: School Bus Stamp
Item Number: 122400
Denomination & Type of Issue: Non-denominated Additional Ounce Rate
Format: Pane of 20 (1 design)
Series: N/A
Issue Date & City: January 5, 2023, High Point, NC, 27260
Art Director: Greg Breeding, Charlottesville, VA
Designer: Mike Ryan, Charlottesville, VA
Artist: Steve Wolf, Austin, TX
Modeler: Sandra Lane/Michelle Finn
Manufacturing Process: Offset, Microprint
Printer: Banknote Corporation of America
Press Type: Gallus RCS
Stamps per Pane: 20
Print Quantity: 100,000,000 stamps
Paper Type: Phosphor, Block Tag
Adhesive Type: Pressure-sensitive
Colors: Magenta, Yellow, Black, Pantone 9202, Pantone 4248, Pantone WM Gray 9
Stamp Orientation: Horizontal
Image Area (w x h): 1.05 x 0.77 in./26.67 x 19.558 mm
Overall Size (w x h): 1.22 x 0.91 in./30.988 x 23.114 mm
Full Pane Size (w x h): 5.76 x 5.55 in./146.304 x 140.97 mm
Plate Size: 160 stamps per revolution
Plate Number: “B” followed by six (6) single digits
Marginal Markings:
Front: Plate number in four corners of pane
Back: ©2022 USPS • USPS logo • Two barcodes (122400) • Plate position diagram (8) • Promotional text
Technical Specifications – Coil of 100:
Issue: School Bus Stamp
Item Number: 740500
Denomination & Type of Issue: Non-denominated Additional Ounce Rate
Format: Coil of 100 (1 design)
Series: N/A
Issue Date & City: January 5, 2023, High Point, NC, 27260
Art Director: Greg Breeding, Charlottesville, VA
Designer: Mike Ryan, Charlottesville, VA
Artist: Steve Wolf, Austin, TX
Modeler: Sandra Lane/Michelle Finn
Manufacturing Process: Offset, Microprint
Printer: Banknote Corporation of America
Press Type: Alprinta 74
Stamps per Coil: 100
Print Quantity: 50,000,000 stamps
Paper Type: Phosphor, Overall
Adhesive Type: Pressure-sensitive
Colors: Magenta, Yellow, Black, Pantone 9202, Pantone 4248, Pantone WM Gray 9
Stamp Orientation: Horizontal
Image Area (w x h): 0.84 x 0.73 in / 21.336 x 18.542 mm
Overall Size (w x h): 0.98 x 0.87 in./24.892 x 22.098 mm
Plate Size: 744 stamps per revolution
Plate Number: “B” followed by six (6) single digits
Coil Number Frequency: Plate numbers every 31st stamp below stamp image
Updated November 30th:
This stamp will be issued Thursday, January 5, in High Point, NC, without a ceremony.
School Bus spells separately. I found a typo in your 2023 list of stamps.😉
Where? Which list? I published 3 of them.
2023 US stamps schedule. Where we look at photos and click on the link for discussions.
http://www.virtualstampclub.com/2023usnew.html
Second to the bottom.
Thanks. There was also another, under “Servicing Details.” Both are fixed now. There are always errors in the first versions of these. Unlike printed material, I can fix a typo in 5 minutes.
Thanks. Looks good now. I don’t follow on “Servicing Details” as I don’t travel outside of Minnesota.😀
From Post Bull 01 DEC
School Bus ( 24c ) Pn-20 1224 Cl-100 7405
4-Bar FDoI cancel in 15 DEC Post Bull.
One might question the necessity of this stamp, as this was already covered with 2123. It is redundant and doesn’t seem to bring up anything else interesting about the subject — another school bus issue could be interesting if it treated the subject in a markedly different way.
Well, to be fair, Sc 2123 depicted a school bus from the 1920s. This one, coming out in 2023, will presumably show a school bus from the 2020s. That’s a whole century apart. Is that too redundant? (I think they will look nice on envelopes.)
Simon I agree completely. The old school bus does not depict well how the buses have evolved. That leads me to ask, does anyone but me remember school buses that were red, white and blue, or was that just an oddity of southeast Michigan?
I remember; if memory serves they weren’t restricted to southeast Michigan as I saw them in several other places but it was incredibly rare for me to see one.
I did an extensive internet search for school bus photos hoping to find one that showed the red, white and blue buses, but alas, I found none. That confirms your comment about how rare they were. This much I can say with certainty: they existed and I rode on one for two whole school years.
This photo is from the Library of Congress. Since it’s B&W, we don’t know what the second color is, but it’s definitely not yellow! The LOC site says it’s from 1948 in Amenia, NY, which I’d never heard of, even though I didn’t grow up that far from it: Amenia is in Duchess County, about 20 miles East-Northeast of Hyde Park and about 90 miles north of New York City (per Google Maps).
VSC: Thank you for the picture.
Not sure if this was repainted, but there’s this one…https://www.alamy.com/berks-county-pennsylvania-november-22-2022-old-mack-bus-parked-at-christmas-tree-farm-as-holiday-decoration-mack-trucks-inc-is-an-american-tr-image493007246.html?imageid=918C78E9-E44B-424E-8170-C105B067E850&p=728131&pn=2&searchId=a94ebdea9012f416a85c5bd079309399&searchtype=0
Mary, That is a much older looking bus than what I rode as an elementary student. My guess is that what I rode was probably a 1953 to 1958 model. Two years later it was replaced by a yellow bus. The RWB bus was just one amongst all the other yellow school buses.
But then we can say that about pretty much about every stamp this country issues. For example, how about those birds? Blue jay was featured on numerous US stamps: Sc 2483, Sc 5320… And don’t let me start on cardinals! Those birds already appeared 7 times in State Birds and Flowers set in 1982, as well as Sc 2480, Sc 2874, Sc 5318. I think, this is as redundant as it can get.
VSC: Thank you for the photo!
VSC: I too thank you for the research and photo. I’m glad I wasn’t hallucinating about the RWB school buses. The date of 1948 works out for me because I would have been riding one when the bus (and me) was under ten years old.
If you look up Frank W. Cyr on Wikipedia and elsewhere and the stories on “Why School Buses Are Yellow, as I did for my School Bus Dragon Card
you’ll find that only something like 35 or 37 of the 48 states adopted the yellow color after the 1939 conference. Also, in some states school buses must be taken out of service after they reach a certain age. If someone else buys an ex-school bus, they cannot use the yellow color, so you may have ridden a church bus that was RWB.
Might there be a “Magic Bus” pictorial cancellation for this new issue somewhere in the US?
I appreciate the humor, but doubt it.