January 30th: This was not previously announced until it popped up on the store.USPS.com website as both a first day cover and “mint” in packs of 5, 10 and 25 (under “mailing supplies.” A USPS spokesman tells The Virtual Stamp Club, “This wasn’t a typical stamp creation and dealt with different channels.” We’re trying to get more details.
Here’s a look at the 2014 stamp on which the indicia is based:
Item # 213525
This was not that unusable method of issue . All of the previous prepaid priority envelopes were issued and placed under “mailing supplies” . Odd though this would come out before expected postal increase in 2015. We were all expecting it in September 2014 when the stamp was issued as in the past.
Here we are in the April publication sequence and still no Scott numbers for the envelope issued in January, or the issues of February, or of course March. This is as bad as waiting for USPS to tell us about the stamp program.
Scott won’t list a U.S. item until it can purchase it. It also releases the new catalogue numbers once a month, near the beginning of the month: I’d expect to see the next batch of numbers sometime next week.