US #5521
2020 Slate Blue & Gold – Thank You

• Issued alongside three others as the perfect stamps to use when sending thank you notes, cards, or letters

Stamp Category:  Definitive
Value:  55¢ Thank You
First Day of Issue:  August 21, 2020
First Day City:  Hartford, Connecticut
Quantity Issued:  200,000,000
Printed by:  Banknote Corporation of America
Printing Method:  Foil Stamping, Flexographic
Format:  Panes of 20
Tagging:

Why the stamp was issued:  Intended for notes, cards, and letters sending “thank you” messages.

About the stamp design:  Design features elegant script reading “Thank you” along with floral accents.  Has a slate blue background.

Special design details:  Includes gold foil on the words “Thank you” as well as surrounding floral details.

First Day City:  First Day of Issue Postmark from Hartford, Connecticut, though the actual First Day of Issue Ceremony was held virtually due to the ongoing Covid-19 global pandemic.  Held at the same time as the American Philatelic Society Virtual Stamp Show.

History the stamp represents:  Since the dawn of time, human survival has depended on how well we could avoid danger.  This is only one theory of why human brains are set up with a “negative bias.”  Negative bias is when negative events, emotions, or thoughts are equal in intensity to positive ones, but have a bigger effect on our state of mind.  Scientific studies have concluded that in our mind, five positive things equal one negative.

To remain positive, scientists actively encourage staying in a state of gratitude.  One man, John Kralik, took the challenge to turn his life around by becoming more grateful.

On New Year’s Eve in 2008, Kralik was alone and evaluating all that had gone wrong in his life.  He knew he had to make a change.  To use up some old stationary, he decided to write 365 thank you notes, one each day for a year.

Through this experience, Kralik realized that what he did mattered.  He saw that his thank you notes affected people.  He said, “by showing others how their lives had meaning in mine, I found them reflecting back to me that my life had meaning in theirs.”  More than anything, he began to focus on what he had, instead of what he did not.  Now, instead of just sending thank you notes, he receives them!