COVER N. 444 - USA

Postmark: Year of the Dragon First Day of Issue Seattle, WA 98109 25.01.2024

Received on the 29th April 2024

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A while ago I was contacted by a fellow collector asking for a direct swap of covers, something that I am always keen to do, and some time after this beautiful cover landed on my letterbox.

Thanks a lot Kevin. Truly appreciated!

The first thing that stroke me on looking at the cover I had in my hands was the absolute care that was given to its layout and the very neat address lines that even included some underlining in colours matching the palette of the stamps..... Neat! 

Also, all the address was beautifully handwritten, something  that is way beyond my abilities... I took to typing the addresses, since postmen around the world would risk having a lot of trouble deciphering my arabesques and hieroglyphs....

So this is the year of the Dragon, and  as usual USPS issued a celebratory stamp for the Chinese New Year, following the illustration concept which was inaugurated  with the 2020 issue. 

I have to say that I find this series quite interesting, given its "variations on a theme" nature, and it's nice to see that since I began writing this blog in April 2021, I have been able to get all the issues thenceforth produced, thanks to fellow collectors, although I'm  missing the 2020 and 2021issues. 

As indicated on the FDC, the Forever USA stamp was issued on 25JAN2024, and the postmark indicates that the cover was mailed from the city of Seattle, in the State of Washington, in the Pacific Northwest of the USA.