Walt Disney

Wade Sampson of MouseWorld.com posted an interesting piece on the site about Disney artists, Paul Wenzel and Bob Moore, who designed the 6-cent Walt Disney commemorative stamp.

The stamp was released on Sept. 11, 1968 in Walt's hometown of Marceline, Mo. Shown above is a First Day Cover which today catalogs for $25.00.

Sampson says, "The stamp was issued almost two years after Disney's death in December 1966 and that was highly unusual at the time. The rules have changed, and now anyone honored on a U.S. stamp must be dead for at least 10 years. The only exceptions are U.S. presidents, who can be honored as early as their first birth anniversary following their death."

According to Sampson, "When Ronald Reagan became governor of California in 1966, one of the things he did was to eloquently promote through correspondence with the Postmaster General of the United States the creation of a commemorative Walt Disney stamp.

Interestingly, no Disney cartoon characters appear on the stamp with Walt because of copyright issues.

"Since the stamp would be used on letters traveling all over the world, we worked into the design our world-wide characters from 'It's a Small World'," Moore told Sampson in 1983 interview when he questioned him about the final design.

Sampson goes to say, "The success of the stamp inspired another stamp featuring the likeness of Walt Disney. Two years later, in 1970, the tiny European Republic of San Marino issued a set of stamps showing Mickey, Donald, Goofy Uncle Scrooge and five others including one stamp with a picture of Walt Disney and a scene from "Jungle Book," the last animated film in production when Walt passed away."

"This was the first time in the history of postage stamps, to the best of my knowledge and research, that animated characters had appeared on official postage stamps."

To read the entire article, click here.