In January 1994, the USPS announced it was creating a set of 20 stamps
titled “Legends of the West.” One of the people to be featured was
black rodeo star Bill Pickett. Nobody expected this sheet to cause one
of the biggest stamp stories in years…
After the stamps were
announced, a radio reporter phoned Frank Phillips Jr., great-grandson of
Bill Pickett, and asked him about the stamp. This was the first
Phillips heard about the stamp, which was ironic. For the last 14 years
Phillips had written to the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee
suggesting that Bill Pickett should be honored on a stamp. He was
turned down every time.
Pleasantly
surprised, Phillips went to his local post office, looked at the design
and recognized it as Ben Pickett – Bill’s brother. The stamp pictured
the wrong man! That was mistake #1.
Phillips complained to the
Postal Service, and Postmaster General Marvin Runyon issued an order to
recall and destroy the error stamps. But before the recall, 186 error
sheets were sold by postal workers – before the official first day of
issue. This was mistake #2. These error sheets were being resold for
sums ranging from $3,000 to $15,000 each!
Bill Pickett on the left (correct person), Ben Pickett on the right (printed on the error sheet.) |
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Weeks
later, the USPS said 150,000 error sheets would be sold at face value
by means of a mail-order lottery. This unprecedented move was made with
the permission of Phillips, Jr., so the Post Office could recover its
printing cost and not lose money. Sales were limited to one per
household and the remaining stamps were destroyed. On
October 18 of that year, corrected sheets were released picturing Bill Pickett.
