Gold Star

In the U.S., during wars, many of the families of soldiers would display a flag outside their home containing one blue star for each family member that was away at war. For any dead soldiers, the blue star was replaced with a gold star. In 1947, the U.S. government started giving a gold star lapel pin to the families who lost sons and daughters in war.

As a kid, I remember people displaying in their window a piece of paper showing a blue star. I don’t remember gold ones, but there must have been. One of the neighbors told me that signified that their son was drafted into the Viet Nam war. The paper wasn’t as nice as using a flag, but not everyone’s home permits the flying of a flag.

Similarly, I also remember seeing yellow ribbons tied to trees in people’s front yard, which goes with the 1973 song by Tony Orlando and Dawn, and other such songs and traditions going back to the late 19th century.

Note

This page is complete. The stamps aren’t particularly interesting, other than the Gold Star Mothers stamp and the one for the observatory on Palomar Mountain located in southern California. Both stamps are on the first row.

Contains 16 spots: own 16 – 16 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Mar 23, 2025

Stamp Details

The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.

spot	own	catalog	subject	description
1.1	✓	966	Palomar Mountain	3c (aug 1948) comm., blue
1.2	✓	969	Gold Star Mothers	3c (sep 1948) comm., yellow orange
1.3	✓	979	American Turners	3c (nov 1948) comm., carmine
1.4	✓	976	Fort Bliss El Paso, Texas	3c (nov 1948) comm., red brown
2.1	✓	973	Capt. William O’Neill Solon H. Borglum	3c (oct 1948) comm., violet brown
2.2	✓	977	Moina Michael Memorial Poppy	3c (nov 1948) comm., pink
2.3	✓	974	Juliette Gordon Low Girl Scouts Founder	3c (oct 1948) comm., blue green
3.1	✓	978	Gettysburg Address Abraham Lincoln	3c (nov 1948) comm., bright blue
3.2	✓	985	Grand Army of the Republic	3c (aug 1949) comm., bright rose carmine
3.3	✓	981	Minessota Territory	3c (mar 1949) comm., blue green
4.1	✓	982	Washington & Robt. E. Lee	3c (apr 1949) comm., ultramarine
4.2	✓	983	Puerto Rico First Gubernatorial Election	3c (apr 1949) comm., green
4.3	✓	984	Annapolis	3c (may 1949) comm., aquamarine
5.1	✓	986	Edgar Allan Poe	3c (oct 1949) comm., bright red violet
5.2	✓	987	Banking	3c (jan 1950) comm., yellow green
5.3	✓	988	Samuel Gompers	3c (jan 1950) comm., bright red violet

Footnotes

Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).
Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.
Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.
To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.