Wed. December 6, 2000
Monrovia, Liberia -
As the US Presidential election continues to be contested, the nation of Liberia has given both men their stamp of approval.
With the election too close to call, the African nation who has previously issued stamps of every US President from George Washington to Bill Clinton, produced an issue of both men running in this 2000 campaign. One was slated to go on sale as of Wednesday morning following the election. The other was to be destroyed, never to see the light of day. However, due to confusion over the outcome, both stamps were put on sale within 24 hours of the final voting.
At first, the stamp of George W. Bush was put on sale after most major media outlets declared him the winner. By the time his victory was put on hold due to the close race in Florida, it was too late to prevent the sale of his stamps in the nation's post offices. Meanwhile, in the confusion of the situation, a handful of the Al Gore stamps were also delivered and sold. As a result of this error, the postal administration elected to put a limited quantity of both stamps on sale until the final election results are official. At that time, only the stamps of the winner will continue to be sold.
"In previous years when our nation has issued stamps for newly elected leaders, we have never run into this situation before", said Hon. Emma Wuor, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications for Liberia. "Since this race was so close, we decided to design and produce stamps of both men. In the end, only the stamp of the election winner was supposed to be used for postage by our nation. However, due to the confusion, a quantity of both men's stamps have been released".
Liberia has been one of the few nations to issue a stamp of every US President. This time around they left nothing to chance. As soon as the election results became final, the post offices were supplied the new stamps of the winning candidate, thought to be Bush. They went on sale when post offices opened on Wednesday, November 8th in Liberia.
The single stamp design of each man shows a recent portrait on top of a US flag along with their signature. Below it reads the text 'The 43rd President of the United States. Above is an illustration of the White House and the Presidential Seal. Next to each portrait are the words 'President George W. Bush' and 'President Albert Gore Jr.' respectively.
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