1973 Boston Tea Party Bicentennial Era 8¢

The 8-cent Boston Tea Party Bicentennial commemorative postage stamps were first placed on sale at Boston, Massachusetts, on July 4, 1973. The issue was unique in US postage production, the four stamps, each a design entity, combined to complete the scene of 1773, when enraged colonists dumped chests of tea from British ships into the harbor in protest of the English-levied tax. The stamps were designed by William A. Smith and were issued in sheets of fifty, with an initial printing of 150 million.