United States, Scott #4992, used(o), 2015, Post Card Stamp, Stylized Coastal Birds Theme; stamp shows the King Eider; in the spring, King Eider ducks find mates and travel to their breeding grounds near small lakes and ponds in the Arctic tundra; they arrive in June or July, and the female prepares a shallow nest; the male returns to the ocean to molt, while the female incubates the eggs; she rarely leaves her nest, losing a third of her body weight during this time; as winter tightens its grip on the tundra, the king eiders gather in flocks of over 10,000 to migrate to slightly warmer areas; most settle in the open waters of the Aleutian Islands off the Alaska Peninsula or in Newfoundland and New England along the Atlantic coast; there, the duck dives to the seabed, sometimes 150 feet down, to get mussels, fish, and crustaceans, thriving well until summer comes and the cycle repeats; this set of four stamps were the first postcard rate issues to be released as forever stamps, with ‘Postcard’ replacing the denomination, so its intended use is clear, issued as a forever stamp at a counter value of (35¢), offset lithography printed by the Banknote Corporation of America (BCA), ‘USPS’ in black micro-print on the second right green reed at lower right of middle, perforated 11¼x11, issued with a non-water soluble self-adhesive gum, multicolored, Scott 2025 catalog value: 25¢. Nicely centered (superb), light. bit broken-up, quarter circular, black-inked, double-rimmed, hollowed-out, socked-on-the-nose corner cancellation with some mailing details at the lower right and well into the main image, good perforations, stamp was removed from its mailing envelope with the use of the Bestine solvent and placed on an piece of black card stock for an attractive and uniform album appearance with the other stamps of the set, centering and mounting warrant a selling price premium. This is not a 'bait-and-switch;' the stamp you see will be the one you receive.
Please review my terms of sale. If you are not ordering from the United States, there is a $US1.55 additional postage expense that needs to be added to the price of the stamp. If you are ordering from the United States, there is only a $US0.68 added postage expense. Also, if you make additional purchases from my offerings, they can all go in one mailing at no extra shipping expense for the added purchases. I will send the purchase by US first class mail, since the relatively low value of the stamp does not warrant signature or tracking mail. Hence the buyer assumes risk of loss or non-delivery. I will keep a scan of my mailing to verify that the correct mailing address was used. If not satisfied, return the stamp to me at your own expense, and I will refund the cost, but not my postage to you. If the stamp is not as described, I will refund the cost and reimburse you for postage both ways.
By way of reference, I am an American Philatelic Society member (195176) and an American Stamp Dealers Association (ASDA) member. Thank you for looking, and I hope this is the perfect stamp to fill that gap in your collection.p in your collection.