Stamps have been a means of expressing the goodwill that exists between the United States and France. The countries have issued stamps honoring each other, and both have participated in two joint issues.

A third United States joint issue was issued July 14-Bastille Day-on the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. The United States issued a 45-cent airmail commemorative in Washington. France issued three commemoratives of the event.

The designs, as in virtually all joint issues between two or more countries, are almost identical.

The U. S. stamp incorporates three panels with allegorical figures representing Liberty, Equality and Fraternity-the watchwords of the revolution. Printed on the stamp are "1789" in black below the allegory of Equality-the center panel-and "French Revolution" and "USAirmail" along the bottom of the design.

The U. S. Postal Service intentionally printed the stamp in red, silver and blue sequence to avoid any confusion with the blue, white and red, the colors of the French flag, used in the French issue.

France issued its revolution bicentennial as three individual stamps and on three different days. The stamp representing Liberty was issued March 18 in Lyon, Equality on April 22 in Ermenonville and Fraternity on May 27 in Champagney. Each stamp carried a value of 2.20 francs.

Previous joint issues were in 1983 on the bicentennial of the Treaty of Paris and in 1986 on the centennial of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty. The two countries have exchanged postal honors since as far back as 1927.

To read the complete article, see:
COMMEMORATIVES MARK FRENCH REVOLUTION(https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1989-07-16-8902180171-story.html)

Panel colors
The United States Postal Service, it seems to some collectors, cannot tell its right from its left. Others find a streak of puritanism or suggestions of racism - and all this on just one stamp.

A Postal Service official and the designer of the stamp vigorously deny all three suggestions.

The stamp, to be released July 14, Bastille Day, to mark the bicentennial of the French Revolution, shows three allegorical figures of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, each against a colored panel. Together, the panels look like the French tricolor.

Alas and alors! The colors on the 45-cent stamp, from the left, are red, white and blue; the colors on the flag, from the left, are blue, white and red.

The Bare Breast
The suggestion of puritanism seems to be a result of the technical problems in reducing a large engraving of Fraternity, now in Musee Carnavalet in Paris, to fit in a section of a slip of paper measuring less than two square inches. The engraving shows a woman whose gown has slipped low, exposing a breast. On the stamp, the breast lacks a nipple.

"With nudity, sex and violence an integral part of our culture these days," said Dr. Bernard S. Moskow of Ridgewood, N.J., any such tampering with a stamp design "seems in the realm of the ridiculous."

"That's silly," said Ms. Parks, attributing any omission to the great reduction in size of the figure. The designer, Mr. Sheaff, said it would have been an engraver's decision whether to use the tiny, tiny dot that would have been needed.

The Black Cherub
Racism or Artistry? For the insinuations of racism, Fraternity is again the focus. In the original, and clearly visible on a similar French stamp, one of the cherubs at Fraternity's feet is white, the other black. On the American stamp, both are white.

But, Ms. Parks noted, all three figures have been redrawn in bas-relief to resemble statues, and in silver to stand out against the colored panels. Silver, she said again, not white, and without any thought of race.

To read the complete article, see:
Stamp for Bastille Day Reverses the Tricolor(https://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/05/us/stamp-for-bastille-day-reverses-the-tricolor.html)

Tom Hipschen writes:

Ken adds:

Jack Ruther writes: