Love: King and Queen of Hearts

The U.S. Postal Service pays clever tribute to the world’s favorite “game” with the issuance of the King and Queen of Hearts, the latest stamps in the Love series. There are two stamp designs, one showing the King and one showing the Queen. Using images from 18th-century French playing cards as reference, stamp artist Jeanne Greco created the art on her computer. “It was funny when I was working on it,” she recalls. “My two sons kept passing my computer screen and they asked why I was always playing cards.”

Greco says she spent a considerable amount of time on the colors. “When I came upon the playing card idea I knew I had to stay within a recognizable realm of color for playing cards,” she explains. “I wanted it to be bright, and yet I wanted to be conservative at the same time. You have the traditional colors of playing cards, a white or cream background, with sort of basic colors on it.” Greco and art director Derry Noyes settled on a design flowing through the stamp perforations to make a continuous pattern.

The Postal Service began issuing its popular Love stamps in 1973. Over the years these stamps have featured a wide variety of designs, including heart motifs, colorful flowers, and the word “LOVE” itself.