# 4706-09 - 2012 First-Class Forever Stamp - U.S. Flags: Equality, Justice, Freedom and Liberty (ATM, booklet)

Issue Date: September 14, 2012
City: Washington, DC

Quantity: 342,000,000

Printed By: Ashton Potter

Printing Method: Offset

Perforations:  Die Cut 11 ¼ X 10 ¾

Color: multicolored

The flag of the United States has changed many times over the last two centuries, but it has always represented a nation founded on freedom, liberty, equality, and justice.

 

Thirteen small colonies struggled for fair treatment from their mother country, Great Britain, but the injustices continued. Representatives from each state journeyed to Philadelphia in the summer of 1776 to decide on a course of action. On July 4, delegates signed the Declaration of Independence and formed a new nation. 

 

In the document, the equal value of all people was stated, and the rights of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” were called “unalienable,” because they could not be taken away. The bold writers called King George III “unfit to be the ruler of a free people” and accused him of obstructing “the Administration of Justice.”

 

The Founding Fathers dreamed of a country where justice would be established and the “blessings of liberty” were secured, according to the Constitution. That group of brave men could not have conceived the growth that has taken place over two centuries, as a fledgling nation has become an example to the world. Millions of people have come to America to experience the rights those men imagined.