Height x Width: 1 15/16 × 1 1/4 in. (4.92 × 3.18 cm)
Type:
Postage Stamps
Place:
Hawaii
United States of America
Date:
October 24, 2002
Description:
The Postal Service issued a $1.48 Hawaiian Missionaries souvenir sheet on October 24, 2002, in New York, New York. This water-activated gum (WAG) souvenir sheet contains four 37-cent stamps. The sheet, designed by Richard Sheaff of Scottsdale, Arizona, went on sale nationwide October 25, 2002.
The 2002 Hawaiian Missionaries stamps were denominated at 37-cents and reproduced examples of Hawaii's first four postage stamps, which were issued in three denominations: 2-cents, 5-cents, and 13-cents. The stamps are called "Hawaiian Missionaries" by philatelists because most of them were used on correspondence mailed by Christian missionaries from Hawaii to their families, friends, and business associates. These rare stamps are now considered among the world's foremost philatelic items. Only twenty-eight covers bearing Missionary stamps are known to exist, and only one surviving cover bears the 2-cent stamp, the famous "Dawson cover" shown on this souvenir sheet.
6.440 million stamps were produced by the Banknote Corporation of America, Inc., in the offset process.
