Object Details
Description
The 29-cent multicolored Red Squirrel definitive stamp (Scott 2489) was issued on June 25, 1993, in a pane of eighteen die-cut self-adhesive stamps. Strips, or coils, were also produced to facilitate affixing the stamps by machine.
The magenta, yellow, black, green, and line black stamp was designed by Michael R. Matherly, printed on a gravure eight-color webfed press by Dittler Brothers Inc., die cut, and separated into panes or wound into coils of 5,004 stamps by Voxcom Web Printing Company. One group of five cylinder numbers preceded by the letter ‘D’ is printed on the selvage peel-off strip of panes. Selvage markings on the peel-off strip include “Self-adhesive stamps? DO NOT WET ? Peel here to fold ?” and the cylinder numbers.
Five previous stamps had portrayed members of the squirrel family: the 1987 CAPEX (Scott 1757f) souvenir sheet (chipmunk) and five stamps of the 1987 American Wildlife pane of fifty, including gray squirrel (Scott 2295), eastern chipmunk (Scott 2297), woodchuck (Scott 2307), and black-tailed prairie dog (Scott 2325).
The American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) is a common North American pine squirrel. It is frequently found from Alaska across Canada to the Northeastern United States and as far south as the Appalachian states and the northern Rocky Mountains. Red squirrels live primarily in coniferous forests but also thrive in deciduous forests.
Eleven to thirteen inches from nose to tail tip, the red squirrel weighs five to nine ounces. Intensely territorial, these squirrels scold trespassers with chatters, chirps, rattles, growls, and foot stomping and tail flicking.
References:
Linn’s U.S. Stamp Yearbook 1993
Scott 2005 Specialized Catalogue of U.S. Stamps and Covers
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/volunteer/novdec02/amredsquirrel.html)
mint
Credit line
Copyright United States Postal Service. All rights reserved.
Date
June 25, 1993
Object number
2000.2016.7
Type
Postage Stamps
Medium
paper; ink (multicolored) / photogravure; adhesive
Dimensions
2.5 x 2.2 cm (1 x 7/8 in.)
Place
United States of America
See more items in
National Postal Museum Collection
Data Source
National Postal Museum
Topic
Contemporary (1990-present)
Animals
U.S. Stamps
Link to Original Record
Record ID
npm_2000.2016.7