In our annual stamps episode, see American history and culture in a whole new way. This episode of Mailin’ It! highlights why 2026 is a landmark year for stamps, transforming them into a vibrant gallery of the American experience. Joined by USPS’s Stamp Services Director Lisa Bobb-Semple, hosts Karla Kirby and Jeff Marino explore a lineup that celebrates who we are as a country. From the World Stamp Expo in Boston to the secret designs still under wraps, 2026 is the year USPS invites every American to discover a piece of their story in these small yet powerful works of art.
What if you could hold a piece of the American story in the palm of your hand? In 2026, you can. This episode of Mailin’ It! takes you inside one of the most exciting stamp lineups in a generation—a collection that celebrates the vibrant, diverse, and ever-changing story of American life as the U.S. marks its 250th anniversary. From the Revolutionary heroes who founded the nation to the cultural icons like Muhammad Ali who redefined it, the 2026 stamp collection is a tribute to the American experience. Tune in to discover the history and artistry behind these powerful symbols and see how America’s story can be told, one stamp at a time.
Karla:
Hello and welcome to Mailin’ It!, the official podcast of the United States Postal Service. I'm Karla Kirby.
Jeff:
And I'm Jeff Marino. You know, every year about this time we do an episode that covers our new stamps lineup, and that's what we've got for you today. But this time around is special for a couple of important reasons. For starters, we're talking about several new stamps that commemorate the 250th birthday of the United States. We're also gonna be talking about the World Stamp Expo, which returns to the US for the first time in a decade. For eight days in May, Boston will be the center of the stamp collecting and exhibition world.
Karla:
Sounds like 2026 is going to be a banner year for stamps because on top of those big moments, we've got a strong lineup of really cool designs that will be rolling out throughout the year. Here to take us through all that is our Stamp Services Director, Lisa Bobb-Semple. Lisa, welcome back to Mailin’ It!
Lisa:
Hello and happy to be here again.
Jeff:
Lisa, last year was a significant one for the Postal Service with our 250th anniversary, but this year's shaping up to be even bigger when it comes to stamps. So can you take us through some of the highlights?
Lisa:
Sure. Each year I really feel like our stamp program gets better and better and I get more and more excited to share the program with you. So let's start with the World Stamp Show in Boston in May. Like you mentioned, it's gonna be back here again in 2026 in May. It was in New York in 2016. This is more than a stamp show. It's really a global celebration of philately bringing together stamp collectors, administrators, dealers, exhibitors, hobbyists, really anybody who loves stamps and is interested in learning more about stamps. The Postal Service will have a large presence at the show, and we'll have several stamp unveilings during the week as well as we'll have our stamp art directors and artists that will be there with us.
Karla:
So, at the World Stamp Show, we hear the Postal Service has some surprises in store. Are you able to give us a sneak peek?
Lisa:
I sure can. So first off, I'm really excited to share that we will be announcing our stamp encore winner at the World Stamp Show. We launched this contest last year, as we kicked off the USPS 250th, where we actually had the public vote on 25 of their favorite stamps that they wanted us to reprint and bring back. We don't typically reprint our commemorative stamps, so we were really excited to allow the public to do that. We had over 500,000 votes and we'll be unveiling the winner at the World Stamp Show. No one will know what stamp won until we unveil it at the World Stamp Show. So only a few select of us know exactly what stamp it is today. In Boston, we're also gonna be showcasing multiple stamps, one of which is tied to America's 250th anniversary. It's one of the things that we're doing leading up to the country's 250th. We'll also have six stamps. We'll have their official debut at the show and we'll have a second day for a previously released stamp. We haven't announced all those stamps as yet, but hope to be able to do so in the near future.
Karla:
So with the various number of stamps that we produce every year, how do we narrow it down to 25 for the public to vote on?
Lisa:
Yeah, that was actually really challenging to figure out the 25, but we did a number of things to narrow it down. We wanted to have a variety of stamps that we wanted the public to vote on. We looked at overall sales for those stamps. We looked at popularity of the stamps. We looked at Linn's publication; every year they do the best of the stamps. We looked at that. So we took a number of different factors into consideration to narrow it down to the top 25 that we wanted the public to vote on. But it was a very tough decision to be honest with you.
Karla:
Now, are you doing this specifically because the stamp show came back to the US or is this an annual activity?
Lisa:
We are doing it because we were trying to find ways to reinvigorate the stamp program and we thought, hey, why don't we get the public to be able to chime in and let us know what stamp they want us to bring back? So we actually launched this when we announced when we unveiled our stamp last year. We announced this voting. We had so much public interaction and excitement into this program. We had a lot of people voting in. There were even 25 that weren't on the list that we had the public writing in telling us, no, you should bring this stamp back. So it's really a great opportunity to get the public engaged and for us to see what stamp would resonate with the public and we're really excited to be able to unveil this stamp in May.
Jeff:
I realize that no matter how much arm twisting we're gonna do here right now, you're not gonna tell.
Lisa:
No, Jeff, I'm not gonna tell you.
Jeff:
But, can you tell us, out of all of the votes, the half million people who voted on these, was there a clear winner or was it really close across the 25 or was there one that just resonated with everybody?
Lisa:
There were, I would say probably about five or so that were really in battle with each other. It was like watching, you know when you go to horse racing and you kind of see the one horse getting in front, the other one gets in front. It was like seeing that on the leaderboard if you will. So there were a couple that were really close. And then one that ended up being in the ballpark essentially.
Jeff:
And that one was?
Lisa:
That one was, you'll see that in May!
Karla:
Jeff:
Well we tried twisting. Alright, let's talk about some other stamps. The ones that are commemorating the country's 250th anniversary, some of them we know are tied directly to the American Revolution while others are connected more through symbolism. So those seem like a good starting point to talk about this year's lineup.
Lisa:
Sure. So we have the Declaration of Independence stamp and that one's a pretty cool looking design stamp. It's a typographic treatment of 1776. The numerals in the shape of quill pens in honor of the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding documents. It really reinforces the idea of stamps as works of arts. It shows how much thought goes into design choices, typefaces, the layout, the white space. It's challenging because you're working with a canvas that's only about an inch wide. So it's really interesting to see how the art designers and the artists are able to bring some of these stamps to life. We also have the figures of the American Revolution. Some of the figures on here are recognizable choices such as George Washington, Abigail Adams, and Benjamin Franklin, but also some that are not as well known, but they're still very important. So on this pane of stamp we have Deborah Sampson. She's an American woman who disguised herself as a man to serve in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. We have Cornplanter who is a prominent Native American Seneca Nation leader and diplomat and we have James Armistead who's an enslaved Continental Army spy. So we really wanted to try a, try to have a broad selection of figures that were important to the Revolution.
Jeff:
There's 25 of them, right?
Lisa:
25 of them, yes. And I also will add that we are looking at a really cool way, interactive way of how we would unveil that, that particular stamp pane.
Karla:
So I found an article about a person who designed the James Armistead stamp. He's a well-known former Mississippi State University art professor named Alec Bostic. He also designed a stamp in the series that features political philosopher Thomas Paine. It reminds us that behind every new stamp is a designer who makes the stamp’s concept come to life. Lisa, tell us a little bit about the process behind creating the stamps, like the ones in the American Revolution Series.
Lisa:
Sure. So Professor Bostic is one of 12 artists who created images for this particular stamp pane. In general, a lot of the stamps coming out in 2026 have been in development for a long time, about three years or so. Some stamps do take much longer. If I were to just go back for a second though, for to the figures of the American Revolution stamp, one of the interesting things we did, we did not, each of the different designers did not know ahead of time what each other were designing. So it really gave the art direction opportunity to be able to get the best out of each one of those artists for them to be able to design the stamp and then be able to come together to look at it in an overall pane.
Jeff:
Did you start with the concept of creating a Figures of the American Revolution all as a pane of 25?
Lisa:
Yeah, the idea here is leading up to our country's 250th, how can we commemorate or show different figures that some that are known and some that are not known. All the different facets that brought us to where we are today. And so we wanted to really think about how do we spark, spark conversation as well to with the public or with each individual by providing a combination of figures that were known and that were lesser known, so that the public can then say, well I don't know who this person is let me go and do some more research about this particular individual. So it's an opportunity to able to, if you will, start the dialogue, which is really what stamps is all about. It’s being able to show an image, be able to show a picture and be able to hopefully start that dialogue with the public.
Jeff:
So I imagine the art director had a particularly unique challenge because you said they had 12 different artists creating designs for these 25 stamps. So managing 12 artists must have been a challenge for the art director.
Lisa:
Yes. It's tough enough to manage one, much less managing 12 all for the same stamp pane. So that's a very good observation.
Karla:
So I have to ask the question, does everybody make the cut? So for a pane of 25 stamps is at least one submission or is it two submissions per artist if you have 12 that work on the series?
Lisa:
So what typically happens is we decided that we wanted to put, let's just say 25 figures on the stamps. The art director will then think about what's the best way to bring this to life. And so the art director thought, well it might be an interesting concept to get different designers to create this particular pane. And so the art director then worked with artists and figured out, well who would best represent these particular figures on the stamp to determine which artist they would like to work with to bring this to life essentially.
Karla:
So Lisa, you mentioned that some stamp ideas can take longer than the average of three years to be realized. That makes me think of the Muhammad Ali Forever Stamp this year. How did that come about?
Lisa:
Oh, that was one that we had been working on for many years actually. And we're just really excited that the stars were able to be aligned perfectly to finally bring it to life. Actually we had thought about releasing it last year and then we decided to hold on to, to do it this year to time with his birthday. But many times when we're trying to work on a stamp, it could be a number of reasons why it takes a long time for the stamp to come to fruition. Could be legal issues, you know, we need to get certain things cleared. There are several stamps I could think of that we were hoping to bring out several years ago that have moved to a future stamp year. Low Riders is another example of a stamp that we're coming out finally with this year that we've worked on for many years. And even Bruce Lee too.
Jeff:
So speaking of new stamps, where do the ideas for new stamps actually come from in general?
Lisa:
So a lot of ideas for stamps come from the public and if you're listening and you have an idea for a stamp, send it in, we always love to hear from you. The Stamp Services team, they work with the Citizen Stamps Advisory Committee and the Citizen Stamps Advisory Committee is appointed by the Postmaster General. We meet every quarter to review suggestions for new stamps. Usually the committee is appointed, like I said, by the Postmaster General and it can have up to 15 people on this committee. The committee is comprised of individuals from different backgrounds and they consider an idea's eligibility. They look and see if this particular topic is worth commemorating, that it's important to the US, what the idea is all about. And then we compare, they compare it against ideas in a database. Past suggestions and overall, just merits of that particular topic based on the Citizen Stamps Advisory Committee's background as well to, they have very rigorous debates and discussions around the stamps because you can only have a certain amount each year as well too. So, it really is tough to be able to choose and narrow down what particular stamp becomes in the program each year. But they do a fantastic job of looking at having stamps across a variety of backgrounds to make sure that we have a stamp for every person, basically.
Jeff:
Alright, let's talk about the stamps that are part of this year's Black Heritage series, which is now in its 49th season. Muhammad Ali's stamp isn't officially part of the series. So what is this year?
Lisa:
So this year we have Phillis Wheatley. She is the first author of African descent in the American Colonies to publish a book. Her legacy as the mother of African American literature is captured in a portrait by Kerry James Marshall. A lot of listeners may not know this, but we also need male and female figures for the Black Heritage Stamp.
Karla:
I did not know that, but I did wonder how that was determined. So we've talked a lot about stamps tied directly to the American Revolution, but one thing that really stands out in this year's lineup is how many stamps connect to the 250th anniversary indirectly. They're not all historical scenes, but they still feel very American.
Lisa:
Yeah, that's a good point. So for a milestone like the 250th, it's not just about looking backwards, it's also about showing the culture, creativity and values that grew out of that history. And stamps really give us a unique way to do that in a small visual format. So for example, Bald Eagle, which is a hatchling to adult, it's five stamps that follow the symbolic raptor journey from babyhood to adulthood. We also have American Bison, which is a stamp within a stamp that will honor America's national mammal. It's an interesting concept and we've had a lot of positive feedback about that particular stamp. I will mention that we also have a few more stamps yet to be announced that are part of the country's 250th celebration. And I really can't wait for your listeners to hear about it. I think they'll be surprised and excited to hear what we have in store for them. But we really see the 250th as a yearlong celebration, which started with our celebration of the Postal Service in 2025 and then into the country's 250th anniversary celebration in 2026.
Jeff:
Lisa, what's a stamp within a stamp? You talked about that with the Bison. I've never heard that term. What is that?
Lisa:
Yeah, so it's actually taking an old stamp that was out many years ago and then using that stamp and imposing, if you will, into a stamp so you can see the image of the old stamp, but then you also have an image of the new stamp that we're creating. It's something that the philatelies really tend to like 'cause you're sort of bringing back the older stamp, but making it sort of feel and look newer refresh for today, if you will.
Karla:
I can only imagine that's gotta be a collector's dream. If you have the original stamp and then you have the stamp within a stamp.
Lisa:
If somebody has it, they'll be very excited to be able to pull the two together.
Jeff:
Interesting.
Jeff:
Well, personally, I'm looking forward to a series of stamps that it's in our lineup that celebrate American culture. Like the ones celebrating the hundredth anniversary of Route 66.
Lisa:
Yeah, so Route 66 is a pane of 16 stamps with eight images. It is, like you said, celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the legendary highway that forever changed how Americans traveled. Inspiring countless songs. I can start singing it, but I will not do that to you.
Karla:
So I've got to ask this about the lowrider vehicles. So did you have individuals submit photos of their vehicles coming from the West coast? Lowrider vehicles are like a huge thing. Yeah. So I am definitely excited about that. Yeah. But how did you narrow that down?
Lisa:
So the art director who worked on that were trying to find different cars, if you will, that would represent sort of lowriders. So we had not just one particular car but be able to have a selection or representation of different cars if you will. So we looked at that. We wanted to look at the colors on the stamp. When I say we, the art director technically, but look at the colors on the stamp to be able to make sure we had a good selection and a good combination to make that stamp pane come to life.
Karla:
So lots of great stamps in this year's lineup. Which ones do you expect to be especially popular with collectors and Postal Service customers?
Lisa:
All I hope actually.
But I would say, you know Lee was one of the big ones that we announced this year that we did. We actually had over 600 people at the unveiling, which is a pretty large size for unveiling. I think Lowriders will pretty popular. We have a lot of the public that are interested in, in lowrider cars and so that will be exciting to see to come to life. Bruce Lee as well too, as I mentioned, is a stamp we've worked on for many years and that is one that I think will also be pretty popular with the public. And then again, I mentioned we have a few that's yet to be announced that I think will be really popular that I cannot wait for our viewers to hear what those stamps are.
Jeff:
Is there any way you can tell ahead of time if a stamp is gonna be a big seller? Because I mean, you've gotta print enough to be able to, to meet the demand. So how do you predict that? Yeah. Is there any way you can tell?
Lisa:
That's a great question. You know, some stamps I think actually surprise us in terms of how well they do. We typically look at print runs and sales for what we call quote unquote like stamps, that you predict how many we want to be able to print. But you never know sometimes. So, Fishing Lures for example, when we brought that stamp to life, we thought, hmm, Fishing Lures. Hmm. But that one did really well. There are a lot of undercover fishermen out there apparently. So that was one that, you know, we were surprised at the performance, but you just never know sometimes how that stamp might do. Betty White, we expected her to do well and she did better than expected. And then SpongeBob and Goodnight Moon resonated really well with the public, probably because particularly with Goodnight Moon it was very nostalgic. So sometimes we do have surprises, but I think overall we are able to predict based on previous performance how a stamp would do.
Karla:
So is there a stamp that has, I'll say quote unquote sold out or just, you know, become really unavailable like within the first couple days of print?
Lisa:
Probably not within the first couple days, but I would say we typically try to keep our stamps on sale for about a year and a half or so, maybe two years. We've had a couple of stamps that we've had to take off earlier. So Fishing Lures as an example, is one that we had to take off sale early because we, we sold out of that particular stamp. Now I will caveat that to say we do print different quantities of different stamps, right? So it's hard to sort of make an apples-to-apples comparison. So but again, there are a few stamps that we thought we did a good job predicting based on other like stamps that just blew us away and did much better than we had expected them to do.
Karla:
So your story about the Fishing Lure stamp reminds us that people don't just buy stamps to mail letters.
Lisa:
I agree. The more that I've, the longer that I've been in the position, the more I hear from people that they buy stamps because they feel that they connect with them personally. Some people buy stamps as gifts, some save them, some frame them, some even use them to teach kids about history. And sometimes the stamp surprises us because it connects emotionally in the ways that we really did not expect. The stamps are small but they really do tell big stories. And many times we hear that individuals are choosing stamps because they wanna make a statement or be able to express something about what they believe in essentially.
Jeff:
Alright. So I think a couple times in this conversation you've teased us about stamps that haven't been announced yet.
Lisa:
Jeff:
And it's not uncommon to have stamps introduced throughout the year and not just kind of announce 'em all at the beginning of the year. It's, it is pretty common to have new ones pop out that weren't on the announcement.
Lisa:
It is. And I would just add there's some that we actually strategically hold back on announcing because you wanna wait for the, wait for the right moment to announce that stamp as well too.
Jeff:
Are all these new stamps coming out are they Forever Stamps or are they all just different denomination?
Lisa:
They're all Forever Stamps coming out, yeah, that we have that we're announcing.
Karla:
Okay. And so you mentioned Stampsforever.com is where our listeners can go and get information on the different stamps that are available and also the products
Lisa:
Yeah. That are available and they can find out more of the stories behind the stamps. They can also, when they go onto that site, be able to see our stamp encore that I mentioned that we will be announcing at the World Stamp Show. They won't see the winner right now, but they'll be able to see where the envelope that has the winning stamp contained in it, what FDOI it's going to. So they're able to see the travel of that particular winning stamp making its way to Boston eventually.
Jeff:
And since we're teasing websites, somebody's got an idea for a stamp, where can they submit those?
Lisa:
Sure. If they go to our website, usps.com and search for, you know, submitting a stamp, they'll see all the information regarding how they can submit a stamp to the Citizen Stamps Advisory Committee.
Karla:
And so I think the last thing I had was, if I'm looking for a stamp or we have listeners looking for a stamp, I can check with my retail office. Yes? And if it's not there,
Lisa:
You can go to usps.com and buy it.
Karla:
If it's still in reprint
Lisa:
Jeff:
They won't send somebody back to the stamp cave to get some more
Lisa:
That's right. Well, that's what, that's what stamp encore is about. It was that it allowed the public to be able to vote for a stamp that they wish we had on sale still that they can actually bring back.
Karla:
So I didn't think I realized that and I'm not sure that our listeners realize that. So literally once you print it, you don't print anymore, there's not, you know, bring the plates back out.
Lisa:
No. Once we use it for our commemorative stamp, once we print it and it is sold and we sell out, that's it. There's probably been maybe once or twice we've actually reprinted, but it typically does not happen.
Jeff:
All right. Lisa, thanks for coming back and teasing us.
Lisa:
They'll to come to the World stamp show in May and also we're looking at trying to also unveil it live online as well too, so stay tuned.
Karla:
Alright, well thank you so much. Always interesting and appreciate you spending some time with us.
Lisa:
Always good to be here. Thank you for having me back again.
Karla:
It's time for another round of, Did You Know? where we dig into our history to deliver interesting info you probably didn't know about the Postal Service. I've got a good one for today.
Jeff:
Let's hear it, Karla.
Karla:
Well, we've had some cool weather in DC this winter and it got me thinking about snow and delivering mail in the snow. We might not get the biggest snow storms here, but some places farther north deal with snow for a large part of the year. Jeff, did you know that parts of Alaska's Iditarod Trail used for the annual dog sled race were once used for carrying mail?
Jeff:
Well, I've seen movies where sled dogs delivered mail a long time ago, but I didn't know there was a connection with the famous race.
Karla:
Part of the nearly 1,000 mile trail that the race follows was a route for mail and supplies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Regular demand for mail delivery didn't really happen in Alaska until the gold rushes of the late 1800s and early 1900s attracted large numbers of prospectors. People that came to Alaska at that time relied on mail to connect with friends, family and business partners back home. And mail delivery relied on sleds that can be pulled by a team of dogs 20 or more miles per day through the snow. Those dogs had thick fur coats to keep them warm during temperatures as low as minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
Jeff:
Well, it's been cold here in D.C., but I can't imagine being out in that kind of cold, much less traveling hundreds of miles in it. They still don't use the trail to deliver mail though, do they?
Karla:
No, the last sled dog delivery was in 1963. Once airplanes became a thing, sled dog service wasn't needed as much. Still, it's such a cool part of Postal Service history that the National Postal Museum has an actual Alaskan dog sled on display that was used by mail carriers in the 1920s and 30s. They would load it with mail to be delivered on a 160-mile route between a region in Alaska called Circle and a village called Eagle.
Jeff:
Definitely interesting.
Karla:
So Jeff, definitely excited about the new stamp coming out and the reprint, though half a million people asked about this stamp.
Jeff:
Yeah, that was a surprise. I was really surprised that it got that much traction. Not in a bad way, but Wow.
Karla:
But the other thing that I would say is, you know, for those folks who are like, oh, I can get the stamp later, technically you can't.
Jeff:
Don't delay for sure.
Jeff:
And that's all for this episode of Mailin’ It! Don't forget to subscribe to Mailin’ It! wherever you get your podcasts to make sure you don't miss the next episode, and follow along on Instagram @USPostalService, X @USPS, Facebook and YouTube @usps.