Triangular Stamps Next, And Kwanzaa

More than a dozen dinosaurs, a pair of swans and an ox will appear on U.S. postage stamps next year. The 1997 program will also feature this country’s first triangular stamps, classic dolls, airplanes, composers, coaches and the African-American holiday Kwanzaa.

“The 1997 program celebrates America,” Postmaster General Marvin Runyon said. “These beautiful images, each of which is truly a work of art, commemorate our heroes, history and humanity.”

Though some details need to be completed, the bulk of the 1997 stamp program was announced Tuesday by the Postal Service.

Scheduled for release in May are the first triangle-shaped stamps in U.S. history, a shape popular in other countries. A U.S. mail stagecoach is on the red triangle stamp, while a blue version displays a clipper ship.

A pair of large panoramic sheets will be issued in May or June displaying the world of dinosaurs. The two sheets totaling 15 stamps depict a scene in Colorado 150 million years ago and one set in Montana 75 million years ago.

The lunar new year is the first stamp off the blocks, proclaiming the Year of the Ox in early January. The newly popular African-American holiday Kwanzaa will mark the end of the year beginning in October, and the usual Christmas stamps will include a Madonna and child, holiday wreaths and American holly.

A set of four legendary football coaches will be issued - featuring George Halas and Paul “Bear” Bryant, with the other two yet to be announced.

Other famous people on stamps will include Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of jews from Nazi terror; Benjamin O. Davis Jr., the first black to reach the rank of brigadier general in the U.S. Army; and novelist and playwright Thornton Wilder.