Decision to Drop Stamp of Madonna and Child Reversed

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service has reversed a decision to stop producing its popular “Madonna and Child” stamp series in 1995.

Earlier this month, postal authorities said they would end a longstanding tradition of producing the popular Christmas religious stamp. Next year’s lineup would, instead, include a stamp bearing the image of a “Victorian-era angel” and stamps featuring Santa Claus and children with holiday gifts.

But Postmaster General Marvin Runyon now says the Postal Service will produce the Madonna series after all.

“Because the Madonna and Child stamp has occupied such an important place in our stamp program for so many years and is so meaningful to so many Americans, I have asked the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee to develop designs for a Madonna and Child stamp to be included in the 1995 program,” Runyon said in a statement.

The reversal resulted, in part, from pressure by President Clinton, according to the Washington Post.

Clinton, who was out of the country when the Postal Service announced its initial decision to discontinue the Madonna stamp, was so upset that he instructed his staff to contact key congressional committees to protest the move, the newspaper said.

The Postal Service began the Madonna series in 1966 and has produced it every year since 1978.