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Jan. 20, the long discussed 60c Grand Canyon definitive stamp finally released. The new stamp shows a panoramic view of the Grand Canyon in various hues of orange, yellow, blue and purple based on a photograph, with inscriptions "Grand Canyon, Arizona" in the lower-right margin, "USA" in the lower-left corner and the numeral "60" at upper-right, along with a silhouette of a jet aircraft. The postage 60c meets the half-ounce international letter rate, and the jet silhouette indicates the stamp meets an international rate.

Although not indicated in the Postal Service's technical specifications, the Grand Canyon stamp is part of the Scenic American Landmarks series. Previously issued stamps and postal stationery items in the series include the 48c Niagara Falls stamp, the 40c Rio Grande stamp, the 55c Mount Rainier postal card and the 60c Voyageurs National Park aerogram. Till now, all of the issues in the Scenic American Landmark series are based on photographs. While the Niagara Falls stamp and the Rio Grande stamp were printed using the gravure process, the Grand Canyon stamp is the first in this series to be printed using offset-lithography.

The Grand Canyon stamp was initially listed in the 1999 issue schedule. While when the stamp was in printing, a serious geographical error was discovered: the stamp design was erroneously inscribed "Grand Canyon, Colorado" instead of "Grand Canyon, Arizona". The Grand Canyon reposes entirely within Arizona, although the Colorado River snakes its way through the canyon. The blunder was caught after slightly more than 100 million of the stamps had been printed but before they had been released from the printer (Banknote Corporation of America) to the USPS. As the stamp will be used in international mail and many people outside the United States would see the mistake on their mail franked with the erroneous stamp, the USPS decided to destroy the entire initial printing and to order a new printing with the corrected inscription. The issue is then extended till it appears in a new millennium.