COVER N. 340 - USA

Postmark: Carol Stream IL 21.10.2023

Posted on the 21st October; received on the 31st October 2023

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It had to happen ... a nice cover, with very interesting stamps, one in particular, and all of them hand cancelled with a ....pen! I hate it when this happens, the more so since there is a mechanical cancellation on the cover so what's the use of scribbling over the already cancelled stamps....

Anyway, Thanks a lot, Felice, for this nice cover and especially for using an Amelia Earhart stamp on it, Amelia being one of my aviation heroes.

Left to right we have:

- USPS began issuing a series dedicated to American Design in 2002. Over the years additional stamps were issued and others  were reprinted featuring new dates on their frame. Such is the case for the 1 cent stamps illustrated with a Tiffany lamp, which were first issued in 2003, although those on the cover are 2008 reprints.

Conversely, The silver coffepot stamp was first issued in 2005, but the stamp of the cover is the 2007 reprint.

- Amelia Earhart (1897-1937) was a legend on her days, and I think she still is, particularly due to all the theories and opinions regarding her disappearance in the vicinity of Howland Island, in the Pacific, while trying to circumnavigate the globe in a twin engined Lockheed Electra, in the company of Fred Noonan, her navigator and radio operator.

Before this last fatal flight, Amelia had logged a lot of brilliant flights the most famous of them being the first solo crossing of the Atlantic by a woman. As a curious note,  she had also been the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, although that first time, purely as a passenger.

On the 25th anniversary of her disappearance, the United States Postal Services issued the 8 cent air mail stamp on the cover, illustrated with an image of Amelia with her Electra in the background.

- On 09MAR2023, USPS issued a set of 5 self-adhesive "Forever"  stamps dedicated to historical Train stations. One of these stamps, illustrated with an image of the Union Station in Cincinnati, Ohio,  can be seen on the cover.

. -  Chief Standing Bear (1829-1908), was a Ponka tribe Native American who would distinguish himself in the fight for civil rights for  Indians, having been the first native American to be granted civil rights under American law, when Judge Elmer S. Dundy ruled on 12 May 1879 that "an Indian is a person"... 

Honouring his legacy, 115 years after his demise, USPS issued on 12MAY2023 the single Forever self-adhesive stamp with his portrait which can be seen on the cover.

- The stamp illustrated with grapes was issued on 24FEB2017 and it is part of a definitive series themed on fruits, started in 2016.