US Postage Stamp Featuring Famous People

US postage stamp with famous people depicted

The US Postal service is fantastic when it comes to featuring people on its stamps. I have been trying for years to collect all the stamps featuring famous people but it is an impossible task. Even to just try and collect presidential stamps alone is monumental. The same can be said of collecting a US postage stamp of the Olympians, Boxing, Musicians, Artists and Actors etc., in fact any facet of society is a challenge. In addition to all this new stamps are forthcoming all the time so it really is an impossible, but extremely enjoyable, task.

Expanding stamp collection

My friends all send me a postcard with new stamps (or Christmas stamps at Xmas) as they are issued and this helps greatly as it would be very expensive to try to keep up with the plethora of new stamps issued (all this and we are talking about just one countries stamps)

All you need from a postal service is available from the US postal service USPS link here

Famous people on postage stamps that I would like to own

The photograph below shows a sample of the ones I like best. In particular I prefer the really colorful modern ones to the single color ones of the past, despite the fact that they might be more valuable. The ones I like best are the Elvis, Richie Valens type of stamp but I am also fond of the sporting ones like Joe Louis and Jesse Owens as shown in photo. The ones I would like to have are the clear featured ones in good color.

People featured that would be worth collecting

Some of these may have featured on stamps from other countries too and the addition of these stamps to your stamp collection would be a boon. These 10 would be well known outside the USA and would have great appeal to philatelists worldwide.

Gary Cooper, film actor, Academy Award winner for famous portrayal in ‘High Noon’

JFK, American President, served only 2 years, but considered the best president ever and the only one to have won a Pulitzer Prize

Lucille Ball, TV actress famous for ‘I Love Lucy’ show and winner of numerous EMMY awards.

F Scott Fitzgerald, Short story writer but best remembered for the novel ‘The Great Gatsby’ written in 1925

Marilyn Monroe Tragically died at 36, World Famous Actress aka ‘Norma Jean’ who won a Golden Globe Award for her performance in ‘Some Like it Hot’.

Rocky Marciano Boxer supreme, the best heavyweight champion in boxing history. He won every fight as a professional.

John Wayne Cowboy, lead actor in several films, he won the Best Actor Oscar in 1969 for ‘True Grit’. He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1979.

Walt Disney, film director and winner of multiple Academy Awards. His most famous fictional character was Mickey Mouse (who has featured on stamps)

Alexander Graham Bell, scientist and innovator and credited inventor of the telephone. Born in Scotland.

Albert Einstein Physicist, discovered and documented the theory of relativity and was a Nobel Prize winner for physics in 1921

Marilyn Monroe - In 1955, Marilyn Monroe appeared in her most iconic scene, when wearing a simple white dress, she stood above the airflow of a subway grating.

The Marilyn Monroe postal stamp was issued in1995 by the USPS and is a great stamp to add to a philatelist's stamp collection. It was one of the best ever issues from a sales point of view. Only the Elvis stamp was better.

5 Other famous faces on postage stamps from outside the USA 

John Steinbeck Writer of ‘Of Mice and Men’, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1939 for ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962

Lionlel Barrymore Best actor and Academy Award winner in 1931 for ‘ A Free Soul’

Kit Carson, famous American frontiersman and trapper

Annie Oakley Famous female American sharpshooter superstar and star member of ‘Buffalo Bill’s Wild West’ show

Jackson Pollack Influential American abstract painter whose work has sold for over $100.000.000

Famous faces on stamps

The US Postal Service recognizes America’s 40th President with this beautiful stamp. It commemorates Ronald Reagan, who was a well-known Hollywood actor as well as a U.S. President. The stamp is based on a painting of Reagan in 1985.

New and old faces and images on postage stamps

The older stamp is pictured beneath the newer one. This older stamps is based on a photograph of Ronald Reagan which was taken in 1985. The stamp features an enhanced photographic image of the president and was issued in 2005. The new stamp above, which is a very good likeness when you compare the images, is being issued in 2011.

Martin Luther King stamp

Another famous man (although not a president) is famously remembered by Americans for his fight for equality. Martin is one of the US citizens to have a day named after them. Martin Luther King day falls in January each year and all states honor the man.

What type of stamp collecting to choose?

Start with a theme for your collection, you might like to concentrate on just your own country or perhaps select a theme like Art, Butterflies, Sport, Transportation and so on which will not limit you to a single country as all these subjects are covered by numerous countries. Whatever you decide just make a start on your stamp collection as it’s the most enjoyable and educational hobby you will ever acquire. It is inexpensive and you will make many friends who will be willing to post cards and letters to you. And remember that you can start your collection with just a single US postage stamp.