Description:
20 stamps/page * 5 pages. You got 100 stamps in total.
 
Background:
With this stamp, the Postal Service™ honors all of the women cryptologists of World War II. The stamp art features an image from a World War II–era WAVES recruitment poster with an overlay of characters from the “Purple” code, used by the Japanese government to encrypt diplomatic messages.
Established in July 1942, the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) were part of the U.S. Naval Reserve. The key to the Purple code was discovered by a female cryptologist with the U.S. Army‘s Signal Intelligence Service. In the pane selvage, seemingly random letters (ZRPH QF UB SWRORJLVWV RIZRUOGZDULL, FLSKHU, DQDOBCH, and VHFUHW) can be deciphered to reveal some key words. The reverse side of the pane discloses the cipher needed to read the words. Antonio Alcalá designed the stamp and served as art director.