USPS adds 4-cent Angel's Trumpets definitive to flower series

The United States Postal Service issued a 4-cent Angel's Trumpets stamp on 9 January in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The low-denomination definitive continues the floral sequence introduced in 2024 with 1-cent Fringed Tulip, 2-cent Daffodils, 3-cent Peonies, 5-cent Red Tulips and 10-cent Poppies and Coneflowers stamps. It was produced in pressure-sensitive panes of 20 and coils of 10,000.

The design shows four peach-pink Brugmansia flowers against a cream background. Photographer Harold Davis backlit the flowers on a lightbox and blended multiple exposures to create a luminous, partly transparent appearance. The four trumpet-shaped blooms visually reinforce the four-cent denomination, although the flowers were arranged pointing upward rather than hanging downward as they do naturally. USPS art director Ethel Kessler designed the stamp using Davis's existing imagery.

Collectors will recognise the issue as both a functional make-up-rate stamp and a continuation of a coordinated modern definitive series. Pane and large-coil formats need separate catalogue treatment, and commercial covers showing genuine four-cent rate supplementation may ultimately be more revealing of postal use than mint examples alone.