COVER N. 646 - USA

Postmark: 2026 Boston World Stamp Show First day of Issue,  August 14, 2025 Shaumburg IL 60194  

Posted on the 20th September;  Received on the 14th October 2025

_________________________________________________________________________________

What a nice cover! Not only the stamps are truly beautiful but also the cancellation is remarkably uncommon. Thank you so much Geoffrey. Truly appreciated!

I think the first book I read by James Michener was "Centennial", published in 1974, as the United States of America was just two years away from celebrating the 200th anniversary of its independence from the English crown.

I must have read it in 1977-78, or so. If you asked me now, of course, I do not recollect the details, but I vividly remember the fact that the story spans millennia, from the formation of landmasses to what was then present day USA.

I liked the book so much that I went on to read a few more of Michener's hefty books like Hawaii or Chesapeake, all following the same  pattern of  setting the main plot against a hugely long time frame, thus enabling the reader to get him/herself immersed into a vast backdrop of historical and even scientific information that was one of the things that I found quite enthusing about his novels. 

50 years have passed since then. Half a century. I am quite older, haven’t touched a Michener book in decades, and the USA is about to celebrate 250 years of independence, on the 4th of July, next year. 

Ironically, as I type, the TV is full of images of the millions who took yesterday to the streets to reaffirm the principles laid down in the Declaration of Independence, this time around not to a foreign king, but to an internal wannabe one..."the enemy within"?

I digress....

One of the events that will be directly linked to the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the American Independence will be the "World Stamp Show", which will take place in Boston, Massachusetts, between 23 and 30 May.

USPS made excellent use of the occasion to issue a couple of terrific in-taglio printed "Forever" stamps than began to circulate on the 14th August, drawing on the attention of philatelists and public at large to the forthcoming philatelic show.

According to USPS, the stamps, which when closely analysed exhibit a very fine 3D appearance, were created as replica vintage engravings so as to celebrate the stamps issued in the 19th and the early years of the 20th century, and they are illustrated with images of  the Old North Church, which is oldest church building in existence in Boston, as it appeared during the American Revolution, and of a  “Midnight rider”  galloping with a lantern in one hand, so as to light his way.

These are both symbols of the American revolution for lanterns in the bell tower of the  Church, there placed momentaneously, at the request of Paul Revere, on the night of April 18, 775, warned patriots of the movements of the British troops.

Paul Revere himself was one of  the "midnight riders" (and the most famous of them all), evoked in one of the stamps, these being patriots dispatched to warn fellow revolutionaries of the whereabouts of the British troops, prior to the first battles of the American revolution: Lexington and Concord, which took place on the 19th April.

The postmark is decidedly unusual in that it is digitally printed over the stamps in two colours, blue and gold, with the 2026 Boston World Stamp Show legend superimposed over the same midnight rider image that is present on the stamp. All in all quite neat!

Postage was completed with a couple of definitive stamps from a series themed on fruits, started in 2016.

The 5 Cent grapes stamp was issued on 24FEB2017, while the 10 Cent pear stamp is a 2017 reprint of the  original, issued on 17JAN2016.