This traditional Christmas stamp, issued on Oct. 15, 1998, features a 15th-century sculpture of Mary and the infant Jesus by an unknown artist in Florence, Italy. The sculpture is part of the Italian Renaissance collection of the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. Richard Sheaff was the stamp designer. This self-adhesive stamp was issued in a booklet pane format.

Please note that the booklet format for this issue does not permit the clean separation of undamaged stamps on the original backing paper- therefore, the stamp offered here was removed from a booklet and transferred to a square of generic release paper (backing paper). If desired, the stamp may be easily removed from the backing paper without damage to the original stamp adhesive.

This stamp was scanned at 120% of actual size to generate the above image- the actual size of this stamp is 30mm x 24mm.