Late Justice Ginsburg to get ‘notorious’ honor on a 2023 U.S. postage stamp

The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, known as “Notorious RBG” by her fans, will gain even more notoriety next year when the U.S. Postal Service issues a commemorative stamp honoring her.

Ginsburg, who died Sept. 18, 2020, was lauded as “an icon of American culture” by the USPS, which unveiled the stamp design Monday morning.

“After beginning her career as an activist lawyer fighting gender discrimination, Justice Ginsburg became a respected jurist whose important majority opinions advancing equality and strong dissents on socially controversial rulings made her a passionate proponent of equal justice,” an agency news release said.

The design features an oil painting of Justice Ginsburg facing the viewer in her black judicial robe with the intricate white collar that was her trademark. The painting is based on a photograph by Philip Bermingham, the USPS said.

As with all first-class stamps, the Ginsburg commemorative will be a “Forever” stamp. The 1-ounce first-class mail rate is currently 60 cents and is expected to rise to 63 cents in early 2023. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has indicated the USPS will seek rate hikes every six months.

Monday’s announcement gave no indication of when or where the stamp will be issued. An agency spokesman said such details will be revealed “as they become available.”

Ginsburg’s birthday was March 15, 1933, making next year the 90th anniversary of her birth. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and birth cities are often the locations for stamp releases.

Ginsburg is one of several Supreme Court justices to receive postal honors. The late Thurgood Marshall was commemorated in 2003. John Jay, the nation’s first chief justice, appeared on a 1958 stamp, and Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. received a postal tribute in 1978.

The USPS also announced Monday nearly two dozen other stamp issues for the coming year, including commemoratives for author Toni Morrison, the first African American woman writer to win the Nobel Prize for literature; the artwork of Roy Lichtenstein; and Black author Ernest J. Gaines, best known for such novels as “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” and “A Lesson Before Dying.”