Celebrating Art
The stamps are cute in pictures. They are gorgeous in person. The crown and the forehead circlet are bright, shimmery gold color. Judging by the drawings around the border, this style will continue through the 12-year cycle. If so, we may have annual feature on our hands.
“The image offers a contemporary take on the long tradition of the paper-cut folk art crafts that are another Lunar New Year hallmark.” Postal Reporter: USPS to release Year of the Rat stamp Jan 11 2020
“Patterns based on Asian textiles are visible on the mask. The circle in the middle of the rat’s head symbolizes the new moon that heralds the beginning of Lunar New Year. Specifically, Lunar New Year starts on the second new moon following the winter solstice in December.” Linn’s Stamp News: New U.S. Lunar New Year series begins Jan. 11 with Year of the Rat forever stamp
Other 2020 Rats
Instead of overloading you with links, I suggest Googling “year of the rat 2020 stamps” > image, to see what other countries have come up with.
Previous USA Rats
2008 USPS: Celebrating the Chinese New Year PDF
1996 Smithsonian, Arago™, The online database of the National Postal Museum: Chinese New Year Issue: Year of the Rat
Slideshow Smithsonian, National Postal Museum, Virtual Exhibits: Lunar New Year Postage Stamps , 1992-2004 and 2008-2019.
VBB Archives
Year of the Horse
[A Colorful Quad]
[Pretty Pink Horses]
Year of the Dog
[Graphic Design: Year of the Stamp]
[Foto Friday: Year of the Dog]
List of Links
[Stamps]
Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott
Virtual Brush Box 
Who knew? Does the gold differ from stamp to stamp IRL as much as it does in the virtual image?
We went to a buffet yesterday and all I could think of was Templeton’s “Glorious Food” song!
The style of the stamp stays the same for the entire lunar cycle. All the colors are printed the same – all the gold the same, all the blue the same, etc, even though parts of the stamp may be printed on different presses. I’ve got a looong time to wait for the next Year of the Horse stamp! I cut back on what I collect stamp-wise -is that a word? – because things were getting out of hand.
What she said. The stamps are all the same. Color closest to reality is the second from the left on the second row, which is the one I used for the zoom image. Differences come from difficulties I have photographing shiny things, i.e. stamps, ribbons, LEGO bricks.
Speaking of LEGO, a tv show called LEGO Masters will be on Fox this coming wednesday, not sure what time.