The United States Postal Service released a 44-cent Ronald Reagan "Forever" stamp in Simi Valley on Thursday morning to commemorate the centennial of the former president's birth in 1911.
The stamp's release joins a line of commemoration events taking place around the country this year in Reagan's honor.
The Postal Service also released a 37-cent stamp of the 40th president in 2005, one year after Reagan's death. The stamp was reissued in 2006 at 39 cents to reflect the 2-cent postage increase, according to the New York Times.
The art for the 2011 stamp, according to the Postal Service website, was designed by Bart Forbes of Plano, Texas, using oil wash. "It is based on a photograph of Reagan taken in 1985, during his second term as President, at his beloved "Rancho del Cielo" (Ranch in the Sky), near Santa Barbara, CA," the site said.
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum hosted a ceremony for the first day of issue. You can see the video stream from the 8:30 a.m. webcast here.
The stamps are now available nationwide, but the Reagan Library is the only place collectors can purchase first-day-of-issue cancellation stamps, in which the stamps are usually postmarked with the date and location that the stamps were first put on sale.
