Young Elvis Beat Old Elvis, but This Stamp Is a Premature Elvis

You’ve heard of seeing Elvis after his death? The Elvis stamp has been spotted before its birth.

The 29-cent commemorative stamps weren’t supposed to be available until Friday. But Ruth Peoples noticed an Elvis stamp and a Dec. 30 postmark on a letter that came last week for her son.

It seemed a little odd, since she’d just read a newspaper article that said the stamps weren’t yet available. So she called the post office. “When I told them I had just gotten a letter with an Elvis stamp on it, all they said was: ‘If that’s the truth, you’ve got a mint,’ ” she said.

The U.S. Postal Service is formally releasing the stamp in Memphis, Tenn., hometown of the late rock ‘n’ roll star, at 12:01 a.m. Friday. It will be released nationwide at noon Friday.

But Peoples’ sister-in-law, Kay Peoples, bought 60 Elvis stamps at a post office in Amarillo on Wednesday. Kay Peoples said a worker there later told her that the office received the Elvis stamps that day, but it wasn’t until the next day that the letter arrived saying the stamps couldn’t yet be sold.

Maybe the letter got lost in the mail.