At a White House ceremony on Monday, President George W. Bush and Postmaster General John E. Potter unveiled a new "semipostal" stamp that will raise funds to provide assistance to families of emergency relief personnel killed or permanently disabled in connection with the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Yesterday's unveiling marked the six-month anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The price of the Heroes of 2001 semipostal stamp will be 45 cents. The 11-cent difference between the sales price of the stamp and the underlying postage in effect at the time of purchase consists of a contribution. Funds raised in connection with sales of the stamp, net of the Postal Service's reasonable costs, are to be transferred to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The stamp is expected to be available in post offices nationwide starting in late spring.

Designed by Derry Noyes of Washington, D.C., the Heroes of 2001 stamp image features a detail of a photograph by Thomas E. Franklin, the word "heroes" and acronym "USA" in capital letters stacked in the upper right-hand corner of the vertically formatted design and the year "2001" in the lower right-hand corner. Running at a ninety-degree angle along the upper left-hand edge of the design are the words "First-Class" in capital letters. Adjacent to that is a plus sign (+) denoting that the price of the stamp is higher than the First-Class rate.

Photographer Thomas E. Franklin, a staff photographer for The Record newspaper in Bergen County, New Jersey, took the now famous photograph of the three firefighters as they raised the U.S. flag at "ground zero."

The self-adhesive, non-denominated Heroes 2001 stamp is a semipostal, which means it will be valid for postage at the First-Class first-ounce letter rate in effect at the time of purchase (currently 34 cents). The remainder is a tax-deductible contribution and may not be used to pay postage.

The Heroes of 2001 stamp is the second semipostal in U.S. history. The first was the Breast Cancer Research stamp, which is still available at post offices across the country, by toll-free phone order at 1 800 STAMP-24 and online at the Postal Store at http://www.usps.com. To date, the Breast Cancer Research stamp has raised about $24 million for breast cancer research.