With the Summer Olympics in London going on right now in London, here is a look at an Olympic stamp from the past. This 1983 block of four 13-cent commemorative stamps featuring Olympic events was issued July 28, 1983, in South Bend, Indiana. The First Day of Issue ceremony was held at the Center for Continuing Education on the campus of Notre Dame University in conjunction with the Junior Olympic Games being held there.
The 13-cent Olympics stamps were the third issue in a comprehensive series of commemorative stamps and postal stationery items issued that year and the next intended to draw attention to the 1984 Summer and Winter Olympic Games. The 13-cent denomination of the stamps met the mailing rate for post cards.
This is a four block design:
- A man preparing to release a discus
- A female high jumper leaping over a bar
- A female archer taking aim at a target
- Two male boxers in action.
Robert Peak of Scottsdale, Arizona, designed all the USPS stamps and stationery items commemorating the 1984 Olympics. The stamp modeler was Clarence Holbert. The gravure press was used. The stamps were issued in panes of fifty.