YES! Here is Australia we have many stamps over the years with living people on them - obviously the queen & royal couples when there is a royal wedding as we are still a commonwealth nation, but we also slap olympians, sporting heros, authors, actors, singers, artists, philanthropists, indigenous elders (important that they are still living as many of our indigenous people believe it is bad omen to portray people who are passed away), prominent medical figures, etc.
Here is a link to the stamp set Australia Post released of our Aussie legends (with the vast majority being still alive when the stamps were released).
But, without speaking of the stamps dedicated to the queen / king, hasn’t the Royal maill issued stamps about famous music bands like Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones… whose members are still alive?
The short answer is YES. @jeffbh That policy has now been adjusted. An article from Linn’s Stamp News in April 2021 said this:
In more recent times, U.S. Postal Service authorities modified the interpretation to suggest that living people could be shown as long as they were not being honored. Then, the postmaster general announced a couple of years ago that in his view the statute does not apply to stamps at all, and the field was clear to put living people on U.S. stamps in any way the Postal Service sees fit."
There have been US stamp issues with 75 living people on them.
It’s a bit confusing, as this article appeared in the May 1, 2021 issue of Linn’s" My interpretation is that while yes, the U.S.P.S. has at times issued stamps which depicted living people, as of 2018, it is no longer doing so.
I think the Legends of Baseball stamps featured some players who were still alive. But the stamp image you posted (“Heroes USA”) is most unique in another respect. The USPS, as a general rule, does not issue stamps about disasters.
I used to think most Canadian stamps honoured public figures who had died (with the exception of the current monarch, of course). But we’ve had several stamps recently featuring people who are living. For example, I just bought this stamp set yesterday. Actor Donald Sutherland is most definitely alive!
I guess they can’t “honor” someone living like a Senator or Oprah; but can put a living actor on there portraying a character like Harry Potter. Or they could at one time. LOL
The Harry Potter stamps or the 9/11 Heroes one are not about commemorating one or more specific people but the movie/cinema as an art form and as part of US culture, in the first case, and the American spirit and ideas of unity, courage, resilience, sacrifice, and so on, in the second case.
Yep @jeffbh. I just wanted to clarify that it’s not that USPS commemorated or depicted living people in the past and it’s not doing it anymore, as you mentioned. As far as I know, USPS has never commemorated living people and has not changed that, as per point #4 of the current criteria:
The keyword here is commemoration, which the committee mentioned in the introductory paragraph. The first sentence of criterion #4 prevents specifically the commemoration of living individuals, not their depiction for the purposes of commemorating an art form (like living actors in movie frames), a cultural aspect, an event, etc.
The 2018 point in time mentioned afterwards has nothing to do with depicting living people, which USPS can still do within the framework of what I just mentioned. What changed in 2018 is the number of years that need to pass before a deceased person can be commemorated on a stamp, which went from 5 years (reduced from 10 years in 2007) to the 3 years mentioned now at point #4.
In Norway we have loads of living people on stamps. Royal family, sports people (usually in connection with the Olympics, I think), and musicians. Can’t remember ever sseeing an author, painter or actor, though. And no stamps of any prime ministers.
Living people still cannot be honored on US stamps, as of today.
