2019 U.S. Flag Forever Stamps — Coil of 100, First-Class Postage

Issue facts

Issue Date: January 27, 2019
First Day City: Kansas City, MO
Printed by: Ashton Potter (USA) Ltd. (APU)
Printing Method: Offset, Microprint
Format: Coil of 100

The story behind the symbol

Ask what the flag means and the answers diverge — freedom, justice, something harder to name. For Lieutenant Michael Christian, a prisoner of war, it was a thing worth being beaten for.

A bombardier/navigator in Vietnam, Christian was shot down and captured on April 24, 1967. Among his fellow prisoners was the late Senator John McCain, who described what happened next at the 1988 Republican National Convention.

Christian spent months quietly assembling a bamboo needle and scraps of cloth, then sewed a rough American flag into the inside of his shirt. Each afternoon, before the day's bowl of soup, the men hung that shirt on the cell wall and said the Pledge of Allegiance together.

The Vietnamese eventually found it. Christian was taken away and beaten for hours before being returned to the cell. His eyes were swollen nearly shut. He began sewing a replacement flag the same day.

Format note

This is the coil of 100 — one stamp at a time off the roll, for households and offices that mail steadily.

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