Flag Stamp Photographer To Be Guest At NAPEX 2009 First Day Ceremony

Flag Stamp Photographer To Be Guest At NAPEX 2009 First Day Ceremony

Rick Barrentine, whose photograph is the basis for the design of the
new 44-cent flag stamp, will be a guest at the first-day ceremony for
the stamp on Friday, June 5, 2009, at NAPEX 2009 in McLean, Va.

The stamp shows a detail from Barrentine's photograph that depicts the
starry blue field and red-and-white stripes of a softly-folded flag.
It will be the "workhorse" definitive stamp for the new postal rates
that begin May 11.

Barrentine didn't know his photograph, whose distribution was handled
by the Corbis agency, had been selected for a stamp until he was
telephoned by May Day Taylor, who is coordinating the ceremony for
NAPEX.

"I didn't know what she was talking about," Barrentine said. "And she
said, 'Your stamp that has one of your images on it.' And I said, 'I
still don't know what you mean,' and she told me that a folded flag
image that I had shot was going to be on the new United States postage
stamp."

Barrentine, creative director of the Quadras Integrated advertising
agency in Atlanta, will be one of the speakers at the ceremony. He
feels honored his 2003 photograph was chosen.

"It almost kind of brought tears to my eyes because it's so exciting.
It's a really cool thing," he said.

Also scheduled to attend the ceremony at the Hilton McLean Tysons
Corner near Washington, D.C., are David E. Failor, executive director
of Stamp Services of the U.S. Postal Service, National Postal Museum
director Allen Kane, John Hotchner, member of the Citizens Stamp
Advisory Committee and Chris Lazaroff, president of the American First
Day Cover Society.

The event will begin at 11 a.m. in Martinique's, adjacent to the lobby
of the hotel. It is free and open to the public.

NAPEX will display cacheted first day covers created for this issue at
the entrance to the show. Cachetmakers are invited to submit their
unstamped envelopes or cards with a self-addressed stamped envelope
and their name and contact information, says Taylor. NAPEX will stamp
and cancel the cachets. At the end of the show the covers will be
given to Barrentine, who will provide his own autographed FDC, a first
cachet, to those who provided cachets to the exhibit.

Cachets should be sent to Taylor at 4600 N Park Avenue #220, Chevy
Chase, MD 20815.

There will also be an opportunity after the ceremony for cachetmakers
to sell their cachets for this issue, as well as a cachetmakers bourse
the following day.

Also scheduled for NAPEX 2009 is a first-day ceremony for new United
Nations personalized postage stamps, commercial dealers and
cachetmakers bourses, world-class philatelic and literature exhibits,
judging seminars, national stamp society meetings, and the "Important
New Collectors" beginners area.

For more information on NAPEX, visit www.napex.org, write to NAPEX
2009, P. O. Box 1312, Falls Church, VA 22041-1312.