Flag Over Porch Stamps





"Many collectors love to hate the Flag Over Porch stamps because they can be so overwhelming. There are many befuddling varieties and any collector with a regular life probably can't spend the time to bother with the Porches"



(Michael Schreiber in Linn's Stamp News, Febr. 16, 1998)





The United States Flag Over Porch stamps were the most frequently used stamps in the US between 1995 and 1998. Although they're pretty recent stamps they're a stamp collector's dream, featuring a dizzying number of different varieties and types: there are more than 250 different collectible varieties. They were issued in several formats and by several different printers: water-activated "lick & stick" sheet stamps, lick & stick booklet stamps, lick & stick coil stamps, self-adhesive coil stamps, etc. Booklets came as either convertible booklets and makeshift booklets.



The water-activated versions were issued with shiny gum, dull gum and a combination of dull and shiny gum (called "dull-shiny gum" - shiny at the top and dull at the bottom) and the coils bear a large number of different plate numbers (which themselves have varieties). There are die cut varieties, perforation varieties, shade varieties, large and small year date varieties, different back numbers and more. Coil stamps were issued both with liners and also as experimental linerless coil stamps.



Flag Over Porch stamps are developing into a hot collecting specialty for diligent US stamp collectors. Many of the varieties are readily available and they can still easily be found in inexpensive kiloware, mission mixes and off paper stamp mixtures, even scarce varieties.



Happy Hunting!