# 2424 - 1989 25c Prehistoric Animals: Stegosaurus

U.S. #2424
1989 25¢ Stegosaurus
Prehistoric Animals

• From a block of four stamps picturing prehistoric animals that once lived in the western US
• Issued for National Stamp Collecting Month

Stamp Category:  Commemorative
Set:  Prehistoric Animals
Value:  25¢, first-class rate
First Day of Issue:  October 1, 1989
First Day City:  Lake Buena Vista, Florida
Quantity Issued:  101,747,000
Printed by:  Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Printing Method:  Lithographed and engraved
Format:  Panes of 40 in sheets of 160
Perforations:  11

Why the stamp was issued:  To promote National Stamp Collecting Month.  In fact, the campaign behind the Prehistoric Animals stamps was one of the largest up to that point.  The USPS worked with MCA Home Video to include a flyer for the stamps in the video cassette packaging for the dinosaur-themed movie The Land Before Time.  It was covered in the media, on the front page of USA Today, and in TV commercials.  Many of these materials promoted that year’s slogan, “Begin an Adventure of Giant Proportions – Collect Stamps.” 

About the stamp design:  The USPS hired John Gurche, who specializes in painting prehistoric animals, to illustrate the Prehistoric Animals stamps.  Prior to the stamps, he’d painted the creatures for books and magazines as well as murals for the National Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Institution.  In fact, he used the Smithsonian as one of his main resources in researching the creatures.  Gurche made repeated visits to the fossilized bones to get his images just right.  Before beginning his paintings, he also made clay models of each creature.

Gurche had hoped to illustrate some more exotic creatures, but the USPS had already made its choices.  With that in mind, he knew he wanted to present the dinosaurs in new ways.  “Some of these ideas had to do with body positions, posture and locomotion, I painted them basically in more active poses, which goes along with the current idea that some dinosaurs perhaps were warm-blooded,” he said.  Gurche also used the background colors for dramatic effect.  The stegosaurus is ambling up a landscape as rough and uneven as his armor-plating.

First Day City:  The First Day ceremony for the Prehistoric Animals stamps was held at the Universe of Energy Exhibit in Epcot Center at Disney World, in Orlando, Florida. 

Unusual fact about this stamp:  Blocks of the Prehistoric Animals stamps have been found with the black engraving missing.  The black engraving includes “USA,” the denomination, and each creature’s name.

About the Prehistoric Animals Block:  The set is often referred to as “dinosaur stamps,” however one of the creatures, the winged Pteranodon, isn’t a dinosaur.  Early plans for the stamps included a wider variety of creatures including the ancestor of the horse, a woolly mammoth, a flying reptile, and a saber-tooth tiger.  The topical subcommittee found the subjects unbalanced and decided that the idea of primitive beasts was too general.  So they decided that the creatures should all come from the Age of Reptiles.  They put together a list of five creatures – the four that made it onto the stamps, plus the triceratops.  They included the triceratops in case their consultants through the Pteranodon didn’t belong.  But they found it helped bring variety compared to the large creatures on the other stamps. 

The sheet’s selvage includes a red “Stampasaurus” with stamp-shaped spikes running down its spine.  This mascot was also included in several pictorial cancelations throughout the summer and fall leading up to the stamps’ issue, as well as during National Stamp Collecting Month.

About National Stamp Collecting Month stamps: October has been designated by the US Postal Service as National Stamp Collecting Month.  The first celebration occurred in 1981 as a way to promote the hobby of collecting stamps.  Each year, new stamps are issued in early October to stimulate additional interest, and many philatelic organizations hold special programs during the month.

History this stamp represents:  Dinosaurs ruled the earth during the Mesozoic Era, a period that began about 240 million years ago.  Although some were as small as chickens, other species were among the largest animals to ever inhabit Earth.  Some were plant eaters while others were carnivores.  Scientists divide dinosaurs into two major groups – Ornithischians with birdlike hip structures and Saurischians, which feature a hip structure like that of a lizard.  For reasons that aren’t fully understood, dinosaurs became extinct about 63 million years ago.

When first found, scientists named this creature Stegosaurus, or “Roof Lizard,” because they thought its plates were protective armor that laid flat on its back, much like the shingles on a roof.  Since then, scientists have determined that the plates ran vertically down the length of the spine.

Arranged alternately in a single row, the plates were thin an were also grooved and honeycombed with spaces.  These facts have led to the theory that, rather than merely a form of defense, the plates actually functioned like solar panels, regulating the animal’s body temperature.

A mid-sized, Late Jurassic animal, Stegosaurus grew to be 30 feet long and weighed about two tons.  At the hips, it stood as tall as 12 feet, with its back legs being nearly twice as long as the front.  Oddly shaped, Stegosaurus lumbered along with its nose almost touching the ground and its backside nearly eight feet in the air.

A peaceful herbivore, Stegosaurus’s main defense was its tail, which sported two pairs of foot-long spikes.  And, thanks to a special nerve center in its tailbone, it was able to whip this around most effectively.  For in its dangerous world, Stegosaurus could not wait for the nerve signals to travel 20 feet to its brain and back again to its tail.