US #1734 & 3178 Smallest and Largest US Stamps, Mint, Set of 2

Get America’s Smallest and Largest Stamps

America’s smallest stamp was an experiment to lower production costs and increase output.  Measuring just .54" x .66", customers said it was too small and easily lost.

The largest US stamp measures 3" x 1.5" and shows the first image captured by the Mars Pathfinder.  The stamp also has a USA-shaped perforation plus hidden words you can only see with a stamp decoder.   Get both of these historic stamps in one convenient order. 

America's Smallest Postage Stamp - US #1734

On January 11, 1978, the USPS issued its smallest postage stamp, featuring the famed Indian Head Penny.

In the late 1970s, the USPS began looking into new ways to lower their production costs and increase their output.  Eventually, they decided one possible way to achieve both of these goals was to make stamps smaller.

So in 1978, the USPS decided to test the idea.  They chose as the design for the stamp the 1877 Indian Head Penny.  The penny itself measured .75 inches, while the new midget stamp would be .54 x .66 inches.  This smaller size meant a pane of stamps could hold 150 stamps, rather than the standard 100.

The experimental stamp was issued on January 11, 1978, in Kansas City, Missouri.  The stamp was only available for use in five cities: Hartford, Connecticut; Richmond, Virginia; Portland, Oregon; Memphis, Tennessee; and Kansas City, Missouri.  The USPS wanted to test the smaller stamp's popularity on a smaller scale before rolling out its usage nationwide.

In the end, postal customers in these test cities were unimpressed with the stamp's smaller size.  They said it was too small to handle and could easily be lost.

America's Largest Postage Stamp - US #3178

The 1997 $3 Mars Pathfinder stamp is the largest ever produced for regular postal use and the largest of any since the newspaper and periodical stamps of 1865.  It measures 3.0 x 1.5 inches.  It pictures the surface of Mars as viewed from the camera in Pathfinder.  It shows the Sojourner cover on one of the three pod doors that opened after Pathfinder landed on the surface.  Part of a deflated air bag surrounds the pod leaf holding Soujourner.  The rover appears in the collapsed position in which it traveled aboard the spacecraft.  The background shows a view of the Ares Vallis region of Mars.  Muted reds and browns are the main colors on the stamp, similar to the pictures sent back from Pathfinder of the Martian surface.  USPS head of stamp design Terrence McCaffrey designed the stamp himself with images from the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory website.