Johnny Cash will be memorialized by the U.S. Postal Service this year with his very own stamp. The country legend will be a part of a new "Music Icons" series of stamps, and his version features a photograph by Frank Bez taken for 1963's Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash. The striking black-and-white design is intended to resemble a 45 rpm record sleeve .

100 Greatest Artists: Johnny Cash

Cash's stamp went through an arduous selection process to be issued. "We get about 40,000 suggestions for stamp ideas each year but only about 20 topics make the cut," USPS representative Mark Saunders told Today.com. "These suggestions are reviewed by the Postmaster General’s Citizens' Stamp Advisory whose role is to narrow down that 40,000 to roughly 20 and then provide their recommendations to the Postmaster General for final approval."

A release date for the stamp has yet to be announced. Today.com notes that two more stamps in the "Music Icons" series will be revealed this year. Johnny Cash died of complications from diabetes in September 2003. He was 71.

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