School Bus Stamps

With the release of this additional ounce stamp, the U.S. Postal Service celebrates the iconic yellow school bus and its role in

ensuring that millions of children get to school and home again every day.The stamp features a stylized llustration of a 21st century yellow school bus, in profile in front of a silhouetted schoolhousethat is more evocative of an earlier era. just under the building's gable roof, a clock shows 10 minutes to 8. the moring belwill ring soon.

Although vehicles dedicated to transporting children to and from school have operated since the late 19th century, it was onlin 1930 that the modern, enclosed, steel school bus came into being. And it was in 1939 that "National School Bus Chrome'first became the vehicle's standard color. That year, a group of state transportation officials and bus and paint manufacturersgathered at Columbia University's Teachers College, in New York City, to develop safety and fabrication standards for schoobuses. The group tested various colors and determined that black lettering showed most legibly on yellow, especially in thedim light of dawn or dusk. Thirty-five states immediately began mandating that color, but it was not until 1974 that all statesdid.

Over the years, many of the original 1939 standards have changed, but not the color. Additional standards have been adoptedto require a mechanical stop arm on the driver's side of the vehicle, various amber and red flashing lights, and cross-viewmirors, all designed to halt traftic when the bus stops to take on or discharge children, Other, more recent reguirements haveinvolved equally important but less outwardly visible alterations to protect passengers in case of rolovers, colisions, and othermishaps

About 25 milion children across the United States ride a yellow bus to school every day. Besides providing reliable and safetransportation-a child is about 70 times safer riding the bus than being driven to school in a car-these buses keep milionsof cars off the road, saving bilions of gallons of gasoline and preventing milions of pounds of harmful carbon dioxideemissions. Yet each bus remains its own litle world, where countless childhood dramas play out, friendships form anddissolve, and daydreams are dreamed as the landscape passesArtist Steve Wolf worked with art director Greg Breeding and designer Mike Ryan to create this stamp, which will be sold inpanes of 20 and coils of 100.

The words "ADDITIONAL OUNCE" on this stamp indicate its usage value. Like a Forever® stamp, this stamp will always bevalid for the rate printed on it.

Made in the USA.