Last summer, USPS customers voted for their favorite stamps issued between 1997 and 2022.
The Postal Service will reissue the winning release — which will remain top secret until May —as part of the organization’s 250th anniversary celebration.
In the run-up to the big reveal at the Boston 2026 World Expo philatelic show, the USPS Stamps Forever website is exploring some of the 25 releases in the contest.
The final installment of past releases is as varied as the United States itself:
• 2001’s Peanuts commemorates the comic strip, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2000. Drawn by Charles M. Schulz (1922-2000), “Peanuts” began in syndication on Oct. 2, 1950. The stamp features the character Snoopy depicted as a World War I flying ace.
• 2013’s Emancipation Proclamation commemorates the 150th anniversary of the presidential order, which President Abraham Lincoln signed on Jan. 1, 1863, declaring all slaves in rebel-held areas of the Confederacy “are, and henceforward shall be free.”
• 2016’s Classics Forever, a souvenir sheet in celebration of the history of U.S. postage stamps, features new versions of six stamps first issued in the mid-19th century. There are three stamps of George Washington (two in 1851 — for 12 cents and 1 cent — and one in 1860, originally 90 cents), two of Benjamin Franklin (1851 and 1861, both originally one cent), and Abraham Lincoln (1866, originally 15 cents). The stamps were printed using the intaglio printing method, as were the originals.
• 2016’s Star Trek celebrates the 50th anniversary of “Star Trek,” the prime-time sci-fi television program that premiered on Sept. 8, 1966. Each of the four stamps showcase one digital illustration inspired by elements of the show: the U.S.S. Enterprise inside the outline of a Starfleet insignia against a gold background, the silhouette of a crewman in a transporter against a red background, the silhouette of the Enterprise from above against a green background, and the Enterprise inside the outline of the Vulcan salute — the character Spock’s iconic hand gesture — against a blue background.
• 2018’s Flag Act of 1818 marks the 200th anniversary of the act, and the basic design of the current American flag. The stamp art celebrating this anniversary shows a flag with 20 stars, the number of states in the union when the Flag Act of 1818 went into effect.
• 2018’s Mister Rogers honors Fred Rogers (1928-2003), the beloved television neighbor to generations of children. The stamp features Walt Seng’s photograph of Rogers in a red cardigan and also includes puppet King Friday XIII, a character hailing from the “Neighborhood of Make-Believe.”
• 2021’s Heritage Breeds pays tribute to pre-industrial farm animals prized for their versatility, adaptability and unique genetic traits and features photographs of 10 heritage breeds of livestock: the American Mammoth Jackstock donkey, the Narragansett turkey, the Cayuga duck, the San Clemente Island goat, the Mulefoot hog, the Cotton Patch goose, the American Cream draft horse, the Barbados Blackbelly sheep, the Milking Devon cow and the Wyandotte chicken.
• 2021’s Message Monsters features a collection of four critter stamp designs that are customizable and interactive. They include accessories and cartoon voice balloons to decorate a roundish, rosy rascal; a silly, striped imp; a squiggly, squid-like critter; and a reddish rapscallion.
• 2021’s Happy Birthday conveys the childhood excitement of a birthday party. In the digital illustration featured on the stamp, the word “HAPPY” appears most prominently in all capital letters, with each of the five letters inspired by a different party decoration: a red-and-green piñata, an orange-and-yellow-striped birthday hat, a red piece of frosted cake, a green birthday candle and an orange balloon sculpture. The word “BIRTHDAY” appears below it in blue.
• 2022’s Charles M. Schulz celebrates the centennial of cartoonist Charles M. Schulz’s birth with stamps featuring his beloved “Peanuts” characters. The sheet of 20 stamps includes 10 different designs that showcase Charlie Brown, Lucy, Franklin, Sally, Pigpen, Linus, Snoopy and Woodstock, Schroeder, Peppermint Patty and Marcie. The characters form a frame around a 1987 photograph of the cartoonist.
The Stamps Forever website expects to run five installments in its “Stamp Encore Celebration” series — the fifth and final entry will entail in-depth coverage of the winner.
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