Sunday, October 21, 2018

J is for John Lennon

An unusual subject for a stamp, given that John Lennon was not a US citizen, putting him up there with the likes of William Shakespeare. Unlike Shakespeare, he did have permanent residence at the time of his death, although there were times in the past that he was denied entry into the US due to his anti-Vietnam war stance.

The stamps are issued in the usual pane of 16 designed to look like a record sleeve for the Music Icons series. Unique to the series (so far) is that there are four different versions of the stamp due to the change in color.


I received one of them on this excellent piece of mail art from Keith C.




 And the other side... which reminds me that Halloween is not far off.

For more joyous Js, head over to explore the links at Sunday Stamps.
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10 comments:

  1. violet sOctober 21, 2018 at 8:34 AM

    I wonder if he'd now be allowed through the border with his drug use?

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    1. FinnBadgerOctober 21, 2018 at 8:39 AM

      That's a good question! I believe he would have been eligible for citizenship in 1981, the year after his death.

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  2. HeleenOctober 21, 2018 at 8:49 AM

    Beautiful stamp, and at school we did decipher the lyrics of his song 'Imagine', during the English lessons, and just now, decades later, I realize what an amazing and actual song this is.

    Thank you for sharing, also the beautiful stamp sheet and the info. And I am grateful to have been a very lucky receiver of Keith's wonderful mail art, including the stamp, too.
    (have to reply to him soon, as I have to reply to you in snail mail, too; thank you for the wonderful dragons, made my day, too!)

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    1. FinnBadgerOctober 21, 2018 at 9:47 AM

      Always happy to send you dragons that come my way.

      And it is a pity that sometimes we seem no closer to peace in the world than we were when Lennon was alive. I wonder what he would think of the state of the world now, close to 40 years since his death.

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  3. Mail AdventuresOctober 22, 2018 at 7:48 AM

    The change of colour is very interesting! I don't think we have a lot of non-Spanish citizens on stamps. I need to find out about.

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    1. FinnBadgerOctober 22, 2018 at 9:54 AM

      There have been many many people on US stamps, so I don't know if there are more. I guess you could include the Harry Potter stamps, although those are more about the characters played by British actors rather than the actors themselves.

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  4. JoyOctober 23, 2018 at 10:32 AM

    I like the colour change and looking at the sheet it has an EP type of vibe to it. Love the Music Icons series.

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    1. FinnBadgerOctober 23, 2018 at 11:03 AM

      They do a great job with it. Hopefully they'll keep the series going - I think the post office has a lot of trouble with licensing fees for the icons.

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  5. Bob ScotneyOctober 25, 2018 at 9:16 AM

    A sheet to admire. Imagine will also be one of my favourite songs.

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    1. FinnBadgerOctober 25, 2018 at 10:37 AM

      It is a nice sheet. I believe some collectors have complained about the four different color variations being unnecessary.

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