This extended issue of 10 different stamps, printed on the same sheet, honored the 700,000 employees of the U.S. Postal Service. The different views depict some of the services performed by postal employees at the time. For the first time in U.S. postal history, printing was applied to the reverse of each stamp, under the gum, providing a little more detail. This stamp issue came not too long after the August 12, 1970, Postal Reorganization Act, which changed the federal Post Office Department into the U.S. Postal Service, an independent agency within the executive branch. The purpose of the change was to enhance the self-financing potential of the postal service, increase its efficiency, reduce the public tax burden, and remove the service from political control.