# 2380 - 1988 25c Summer Olympics

U.S. #2380
1988 25¢ Summer Olympics

• Issued in advance of the Seoul Olympics, which ran from September 17 to October 2, 1988
• Pictures an Olympic athlete on the rings, mid-swing

Stamp Category:  Commemorative, Definitive, Express Mail, semi-postal, airmail
Series:  Olympic Stamps
Value:  25¢, first-class rate
First Day of Issue:  August 19, 1988
First Day City:  Colorado Springs, Colorado
Quantity Issued:  157,215,000
Printed by:  Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Printing Method:  Photogravure
Format:  Panes of 50 in sheets of 200
Perforations:  11

Why the stamp was issued:  To commemorate the 1988 Summer Olympic Games, which opened a month after the stamp was issued.

About the stamp design:  As with the 1988 Winter Olympics stamp (US #2369), the USPS initially requested a travel poster style for this stamp.  Artist Bart Forbes produced designs depicting a pagoda a statue of a warrior king.  But as with the Winter Olympics stamp, the USPS decided that these designs didn’t strongly imply Olympics.  So Forbes was told to create artwork of athletes.  Some of his designs included a high jumper and a gymnast.  But the final selected design pictured a male gymnast on the rings mid-swing.  Forbes was also hired by the South Korean Olympic Committee as their official artist of the Summer Games.  He had to paint 31 two- by three-foot oil paintings of each sport, which now hang in the Olympic museum in Seoul.

First Day City:  The First Day ceremony for this stamp was held at the Olympic Complex in Colorado Springs, Colorado, headquarters of the US Olympic Committee.

About Olympics Stamps:  In 1932, the US Post Office Department issued its first stamp honoring the Olympics Games.  1932 marked the third time the Winter Olympic Games were held, and the first time the event was held in the US. The games were held in Lake Placid, a small town in upstate New York that was home to less than 3,000 year-round residents.

Less than five months later, the Post Office issued its second and third Olympics stamps, honoring the summer games. Both stamps were issued on June 15, 1932, in Los Angeles, California, the site of the games. 

It would be nearly 30 years before the US issued another stamp honoring the Olympics. That issue commemorated the 1960 Winter Olympics held in Squaw Valley, California. Since 1972, the USPS has issued stamps for most Summer and Winter Olympic Games.

History the stamp represents:  The 1988 Summer Olympic Games, held in Seoul, South Korea, were the second summer games held in an Asian country.  Due to the war with North Korea at the time, several countries boycotted the games, including, Albania, Cuba, and Madagascar. 

One hundred and sixty countries took part in the games, with 8,391 athletes (6,197 men and 2,194 women).  East German athlete Christa Luding-Rothenburger became the first and only Olympian to win medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympics in the same year.  Also, Kirsten Palm, a fencer from Sweden, became the first woman to participate in seven Olympics.  The Soviet Union received the most awards, with a total of 132 medals, 55 of which were gold.