Terry McCaffrey explains how the USPS verifies stamp designs. A 1994 Bill Pickett stamp used the wrong photograph, caught only when a relative called. Now the agency sources original photos and has three subject-matter experts review each design before release.
Every single stamp design that we do goes through a great deal of verification and research to make sure that it's authentic. In 1994, the infamous Bill Pickett incident happened. I was awakened by a phone call. It was 5 o'clock in the morning. We had a major mistake on a stamp. It seems that a relative of Bill Pickett said, "That is not Bill Pickett, that is his his brother Ben Pickett. We were told by the genealogical firm that there were no known living relatives of Bill Pickett, and the actual photograph had written onto the negative Bill Pickett, and it listed all of his claims to fame. And he is imprinted on my mind forever because he changed my whole work style and the work style of the U.S. Postal Service. We will not only research the original photographs for the artist to work from, but once the art is and then it will be sent out to an average of 3 different experts on that subject. The collectors love it when we make a mistake because it becomes to them a collectible.
