Released on August 11, 2009, The TV Early Memories stamp set commemorated twenty classic TV shows, including... yeah, The Twilight Zone. Fans have been lobbying the post office for years to release a Rod Serling stamp, to no avail. The Twilight Zone stamp doesn't actually have Serling's name on it, but his face is front and center. This may be the closest we ever get to a bona fide Rod Serling stamp.... but wow, it's beautiful. In fact, the whole set is really quite nice.
The release of the Twilight Zone stamp was the focus of a media event in Binghamton, New York on 8/11/09. More on this here and here. Interesting note: both scans above have a face value of 42 cents per stamp but, when the stamps were actually released, the price had gone up to 44 cents. I wonder how many sheets the post office printed before they decided to raise the price...
When new postage stamps are released, stamp collectors will often send themselves envelopes with the new stamp affixed, with the intent of having the postmark match the release date (at least I think that's how it works; stamp collectors feel free to correct me here). The resultant envelope is called a "cover," or a "pictorial cancel." A gentleman named Martin Tillett takes it a step further: he customizes subject-specific envelopes, matches them up with the appropriate stamp, has them postmarked, then offers them up for sale on eBay. He did a total of four distinct Twilight Zone-specific envelopes, each with a different pictorial graphic. The first was postmarked on 8/11/09, when the stamp was first released...
The other three were done on 10/03/09, to commemorate the series' 50th anniversary (he missed it by one day, actually, since the magic date was 10/02/09). I was able to acquire two of them...
Since these are essentially one-of-a-kind items, there's really no way I can ever hope to acquire the elusive third Serling cover (Mr. Tillett has assured me that they're all sold). I did, however, manage to find a picture of it from one of Mr. Tillett's completed auctions. Unfortunately, it has a polar bear stamp instead of the TZ stamp, but it at least shows the unique Serling illustration...
It just kills me that I'll never have the complete set.. but I guess three out of four ain't bad. In any case, they'll look great in my Twilight Zone scrapbook. If you're interested in seeing some of Mr. Tillett's non-Twilight Zone covers currently available on eBay, have a look here.
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