The Postal Service issued a traditional and contemporary Christmas stamp to celebrate the holiday season on October 20, 1999.
The 33-cent Madona and Child stamp was issued in Washington, DC. The stamp was designed by Richard Sheaff of Scottsdale, Arizona, and based on a detail of Venetian artist Bartolomeo Vivarini's Madonna and Child masterpiece, circa 1475. This tempera-on-wood-panel painting is considered one of his more important works. The Banknote Corporation of America, Inc., produced 1,555,560,000 stamps in the offset process.
The 33-cent Holiday Greetings (Deer) stamps were issued in Rudolph, Wisconsin and designed by Tom Nikosey of Canoga Park, California.The stamps feature an antique- gold deer design set against four different colored backgrounds (red, green, purple, and blue). For inspiration for this festive image, artist Tom Nikosey used holiday designs that foundries made available to printers in the 1930s. This was Nikosey's first stamp design for the US Postal Service.
The Banknote Corporation of America, Inc., printed 116.5 million stamps in self-adhesive panes of twenty, 118,125,000 stamps in vending booklet of fifteen, and 1,785,060,000 stamps in self-adhesive convertible booklet of twenty. All the stamps were printed in the offset process.
Reference:
Postal Bulletin (September 23, 1999).
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