Stamp Subject Selection Criteria
The U.S. Postal Service and the members of the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC) have set certain basic criteria used in determining the eligibility of subjects for commemoration on all U.S. stamps and stationery. These criteria first were formulated about the time of Postal Reorganization in the early 1970s, and have been refined and expanded gradually since then.

Following are the 12 major criteria now guiding subject selection:

1. It is a general policy that U.S. postage stamps and stationery primarily will feature American or American-related subjects.

2. No living person shall be honored by portrayal on U.S. postage.

3. Commemorative stamps or postal stationery items honoring individuals usually will be issued on, or in conjunction with significant anniversaries of their birth, but no postal item will be issued sooner than five years after the individual’s death. The Committee will not accept or consider proposals for a subject until at least two years after his/her death. The only exception to the five-year rule is the issuance of stamps honoring deceased U.S. presidents. They may be honored with a memorial stamp on the first birth anniversary following death.

4. Events of historical significance shall be considered for commemoration only on anniversaries in multiples of 50 years.

5. Only events, persons, and themes of widespread national appeal and significance will be considered for commemoration. Events, persons or themes of local or regional significance may be recognized by a philatelic or special postal cancellation, which may be arranged through the local postmaster.

6. Stamps or stationery items shall not be issued to honor fraternal, political, sectarian, or service/charitable organizations. Stamps or stationery shall not be issued to promote or advertise commercial enterprises or products. Commercial products or enterprises might be used to illustrate more general concepts related to American culture.

7. Stamps or stationery items shall not be issued to honor individual federal agencies, cities, towns, municipalities, counties, primary or secondary schools, hospitals, libraries, or similar institutions. Due to the limitations placed on annual postal programs and the vast number of such locales, organizations and institutions in existence, it would be difficult to single out any one for commemoration.

8. Requests for observance of statehood anniversaries will be considered for commemorative postage stamps only at intervals of 50 years from the date of the state’s first entry into the Union. Requests for observance of other state-related or regional anniversaries will be considered only as subjects for postal stationery, and again only at intervals of 50 years from the date of the event.

9. Stamps or stationery items shall not be issued to honor religious institutions or individuals whose principal achievements are associated with religious undertakings or beliefs.

10. Semipostal stamps are designed to raise funds for causes determined to be in the national public interest and appropriate. Semipostal stamps are sold for a price above their postage value. The differential between the sales price and the postage value of semipostal stamps consists of an amount (less a deduction for the Postal Service’s reasonable costs) to be given to other executive agencies in furtherance of specified causes. The Postal Service issues semipostals in accordance with the Stamp Out Breast Cancer Act and the Semipostal Authorization Act.

11. Requests for commemoration of universities and other institutions of higher education shall be considered only for stamped cards and only in connection with the 200th anniversaries of their founding.

12. No stamp shall be considered for issuance if one treating the same subject has been issued in the past 50 years. The only exceptions to this rule are traditional themes such as national symbols and holidays.

Her hospices and hospitals didn’t even offer pain relief medication to patients, not because they couldn’t afford it, but as a matter of principle. In MT’s view, pain was “a gift from God.”

Then there was her endorsement of the Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti.

In fact, extremists and all the other fringies need to shut up to minimize the attention the’re attracting to themselves. There are a LOT of pissed folks in this country that are tired of this nonsense, when the *ahem* coming realignment happens, a lot of these squeaky wheels are going to get greased. And I am not talking about lubricants either.

HOW COME THERE IS NO OUTRAGE OVER THE MUSLIM STAMP JUST RELEASED??

Make sure you don’t let them pawn it off on you when you buy stamps, looks pretty, flowers but is commemorating some Muslim holiday.

concernedsenior on February 1, 2010 at 12:04 PM

why would there be outrage?

“Mother Teresa is principally known as a religious figure who ran a religious institution. You can’t really separate her being a nun and being a Roman Catholic from everything she did,” Gaylor told FoxNews.com.

They are saying we a free to practice religion only if we practice it in secret. No one with religious identity may be honored. That would also leave out the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, who used prayer in his protests

Only the faithless need apply

I ask good, caring atheists simply to be aware of these people that are organized to pin down on others. Same goes for the good Muslims that have to come out and denounce their radical fellows. To sacrifice and make reparations for others will be commended by others, and it will fulfill your place on Earth.

Sorry if I pis$ed off some of you on my previous post, but I can’t stand the pure evil that this woman represents, and the organization as well.

Have no fear of evil, therefore have no fear of liberals.

;)

Then around that chair I will place all my Catholic statues, angels, Archangels; hey I will even put front and center, several pictures of Mother Theresa that were taken by a photographer that pilgrimaged with her that VERY FEW people have.

Next, I will place on her forehead a Maria Rosa Mystica medal before starting these prayers:

*Baptism of the unborn and the unbaptised of the whole world until the end of the world;
*I will pray for her the Rosary of the Tears of Blood, to put the devil to flight when it is said (I KID YOU NOT!);
*I will get a hold of my blessed cross, holy water and one of my scapulars, and perform an “Exorcism of Satan and the apostate angels;
*Prayer to Archangel Michael (my fav!) then a formal Exorcism;
*And to claim “This house is clear! I will read to her Psalm 67.

*I do have all these prayers and tools at hand.

Then we’ll settle score the atheist way if she still wants to. Perhaps I will have to mop some squished sweet peas/sarc

How many atheists were ever honored with a stamp for their good work?

So a stamp is the standard for lifetime acheivement?

Why would atheists want to help anybody? They have no basis to do so, not even moral.

So, since atheist don’t believe in a deity that commands genocide, condones rape, infanticide, and glorifies OCD rituals then we don’t have a basis for morality?

Their religion of evolution provides nothing but survival of the fittest.

as much as you would like to assert a Tu Quoque on atheist essentialy being part of a cult, let me remind you that most just simply reject the religious’ unfounded claims of supernatural powers/knowledge.

Leprosy? too bad. You just aren’t fit to survive.

Lepers are fit to survive? So be it, although I was thinking that lepers were unclean and that we should make them live outside of the city, say, in their own colony.

ricelchew on February 1, 2010 at 8:14 PM

I quote the nuns from her order and from her own writings.

Cast aspersions on the messengers if you will, the truth is the truth.

mankai on February 1, 2010 at 1:04 PM

You may have noticed I said “calumny, lies and “half truths.”

Some of what they said were outright lies and some distortions or half truths. Or they were wrong in their perspective. And when someone spreads untruth knowingly or out of malice without investigating the entire picture or because of a grievance or prejudice that is part of calumny.

And those who believe these half-truths and calumny, like you, and then repeat them are also in my prayers.

Blessed Mother Theresa, please, pray for us.

“The dead know nothing… the dead do not praise.”

mankai on February 1, 2010 at 1:04 PM

The Saints are alive in Christ. What you quoted does not pertain to Christian Saints/saints. “the dead” in that psalm are those who do not believe in the Lord God.

Luke 20:38: “and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

John 11:25-26: “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

And what of the Transfiguration? Were Moses and Elijah dead or alive in Christ?

Angels are “alive” and speak with humans, by the will of God and grace of God. Same with the Saints/saints.

Psalm 103: “Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word! Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers that do his will!”

Revelation 5:8: “When he took it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each of the elders held a harp and gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the holy ones.”

Revelation 8:3-4: “Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a gold censer. He was given a great quantity of incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the holy ones, on the gold altar that was before the throne.
The smoke of the incense along with the prayers of the holy ones went up before God from the hand of the angel.”

Ingenue on February 1, 2010 at 1:35 PM

Thank you.

mankai on February 1, 2010 at 1:04 PM

Yeah I read your article, it had more positives then negatives. You skipped over the part where she talked about saving lives.
As I said before, it basically just complained about the rules of the order. She didn’t like the way the system worked, so she left. Not really that much to say about it.
And actually, I can SEE why what she did would be an issue and give her superior good reason to reprimand her. There is a reason why those rules are in place, the superiors are going to know that much better then the newcomers.

HOW COME THERE IS NO OUTRAGE OVER THE MUSLIM STAMP JUST RELEASED??

Make sure you don’t let them pawn it off on you when you buy stamps, looks pretty, flowers but is commemorating some Muslim holiday.

concernedsenior on February 1, 2010 at 12:04 PM

OK… that is stupid and insulting as well.

Blessed Mother Theresa, please, pray for us.

“The dead know nothing… the dead do not praise.”

And may Our Lord Jesus Christ bless those in this world who spread calumny and lies and half-truths about Mother Theresa and any other person who does the work of the Lord and voices His true Gospel.

Elisa on February 1, 2010 at 11:45 AM

I quote the nuns from her order and from her own writings.

Cast aspersions on the messengers if you will, the truth is the truth.

Make sure you don’t let them pawn it off on you when you buy stamps, looks pretty, flowers but is commemorating some Muslim holiday.

And may Our Lord Jesus Christ bless those in this world who spread calumny and lies and half-truths about Mother Theresa and any other person who does the work of the Lord and voices His true Gospel.

. . . . . Her actions are what we now call “triage”, the treatment protocol we now use in overwhelming emergencies.

MT saved many lives; MT lost many lives. She did what she did without any financial support from the world at large for decades.

As Ingenue state previously, Missionaries of Charity is not a hospital, they are not doctors, they are merely people who care for the sick. A caregiver is not the same as a doctor. Without the Missionaries of Charity these are people that would die on the street and alone. They wouldn’t even have a chance at medical care. I do believe that if Mother Teresa had the option she would have sent every single one of them to the most expensive hospitals in the world. However, if she did that with the money she had there would have been so many without.

Quaoar on February 1, 2010 at 1:24 AM

Exactly! Thank you and the others here who have defended the truth.

She was not a “social worker” by her own words. She was not a doctor or an administrator.

She answered the call God gave to her specifically. A very difficult call that most of us could not do. And she answered with a “yes” full of sacrificial love and faith even in darkness.

None of you could do this (while living also as one of the poor yourselves), for even one day, let alone vow to do so for the rest of your time on earth.

tigerlily on January 31, 2010 at 3:48 PM
Cool you mentioned that detail I recall Martin Sheen sleeping on a subway grate one time, to show ’solidarity’ with the homeless.

Yeah, it’s okay I guess to sleep on a subway grate one night when you can return to a mansion in the morning.

Libs are so much of phonies, aren’t they? Streisand buys a $4.5 million island, then goes out to say we need to tax tax tax to ‘care’ for the ‘homeless’

Liam on January 31, 2010 at 3:54 PM

Yes, Liam, I think that the power of one person, when they say yes to God can accomplish incredible feats for the good of others. Mother Teresa showed us this. I don’t usually write about personal things, but I think maybe I should write this out:

When my sister Maggie was dying of cancer, I accompanied her to Tijuana Mexico to try an alternative treatment.
It was reveled that the cancer had spread everywhere, by a doctor who gave her the news while she was alone, early one morning. She was devastated, but a priest who we had come to know when we were down there told us that Mother Teresa was in town to visit her order of sisters in Tijuana. I asked Father to please bring my sister to see Mother.
He did, and my own father was there as well. When Mother Teresa approached us, she would put her hand on our cheek and bless us and give us a Miraculous Medal. When she came to my father, she gave him two light “slaps” on the cheek.
My father felt kind of bad, and thought that it was because she knew somehow that he had been such a handful for my mother during their marriage, but as it turns out, I learned some years later as I told that story to two of Mother Teresa’s nuns back in the U.S., that in India, that “patting” or light “slap” to the cheeks is considered a sign of affection. Anyway, my dad said that the power he felt from her as she stood before him (she is about 4′10″) “could have lit up New York City”.

As for my sister Maggie, Mother Teresa took her into the nuns chapel, where Maggie knelt down and Mother Teresa placed her hands on her head (the cancer had spread to her brain) and prayed for her. Mother also gave her a miraculous medal and told her to place it on her forehead and pray for God’s will to heal her.

My sister suffered very much and died four weeks later, and she had an acceptance and peace about her that was beyond inspirational. Maggie told me once that she was offering her death up for our family, and she never complained or asked why. Mother Teresa helped get my sister from this life to the next, as she has done for countless others. So anyone who says that nothing has been changed because she lived had better not say it in front of me.

tigerlily on January 31, 2010 at 4:20 PM

Thank you for sharing this. I know it was private.

God bless you and your family. I will say a prayer for them.

JRWARHAWK on February 1, 2010 at 10:22 AM

I mean no disrespect by this. It come from gratitude and respect and from my heart.

God bless you.

I would buy the stamp and I think it has taken far too long for Mother Teresa to be commemorated for her tireless efforts and good will.

Yes. Interestingly, that’s the sort of reaction you get from someone who’s not secure in their faith.