School Bus 2023 Additional Ounce Stamps — First-Class Rate (Not a Forever Stamp)

Please note: this is an additional-ounce stamp, not a Forever Stamp. The words "ADDITIONAL OUNCE" printed on it state its usage value, and like a Forever® stamp it remains valid for that rate indefinitely. Made in the USA.

The design

A stylized 21st-century yellow school bus in profile, in front of a silhouetted schoolhouse that belongs to a much earlier era. Under the gable roof a clock reads ten minutes to eight — the morning bell is close.

Artist Steve Wolf created the stamp with art director Greg Breeding and designer Mike Ryan. Sold in panes of 20 and coils of 100.

Why school buses are yellow

Vehicles have carried children to school since the late 19th century, but the enclosed steel bus only appeared in 1930. The color came in 1939, when state transportation officials met with bus and paint manufacturers at Columbia University's Teachers College in New York City to set safety and fabrication standards. They tested a range of colors and found black lettering read most clearly against yellow, particularly in the weak light of dawn and dusk. "National School Bus Chrome" became standard in thirty-five states almost immediately; the last states adopted it in 1974.

What has changed since

Most of the 1939 standards have been revised — but not the color. Later requirements added the mechanical stop arm on the driver's side, amber and red flashing lights, and cross-view mirrors, all of which exist to stop traffic while children board or get off. More recent rules address rollover and collision protection, less visible from outside and no less important.

What the buses do

About 25 million American children ride one every day, and a child is roughly 70 times safer on the bus than being driven to school in a car. Collectively they keep millions of cars off the road, save billions of gallons of gasoline, and prevent millions of pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. Each one is also its own small world, where friendships form and end, minor dramas play out, and a lot of daydreaming gets done while the landscape goes by.

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