re: "The Most Artistic Passport"

Robert at Expat Yank ("One American living in the south of England") seems to like his new passport.

Money quote(s):

"Praise is in order.

For it took exactly all of 16 days (including weekends and 2 days transit, round trip, special delivery in the UK post) for yours truly to send his soon to be expiring passport to the Embassy and receive the new one back on Friday. Totally unexpected, that level of efficency. A nod to the passport people in London and at the Department of State."

&

"(I)f you haven’t seen one yet, the new U.S. e-passport is practically a work of art. The front inside cover is embelished with the (presumably Francis Scott Key) handwritten lines of The Star Spangled Banner over an engraving of a view of Fort McHenry. The back inside cover has an engraving of a satellite view of the U.S. down on earth.

Between, we get a bald eagle over the opening lines of the Constitution, and visa stamp pages that include backgrounds of the Liberty Bell, the Great Plains, bison (before what look like the Tetons), a steamboat, cowboys, Mt Rushmore, and more, all headed with quotes from Daniel Webster (how many people today have never heard of Daniel Webster, but owing to the passport now will?), Teddy Roosevelt, John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and even the Mohawk Thanksgiving Address, among others."