Piñatas (US 2023)

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Announced by the USPS on October 24, 2022.

Celebrate the fun and tradition of piñatas with a colorful new booklet of 20 stamps. The stamp art features four lively, digital illustrations of two traditional piñata designs — a donkey and a seven-point star. The bright, saturated color palette was inspired by Mexican culture, including the vibrant colors of small-town houses, traditional hand-sewn dresses, handmade toys and flowers, and classic piñatas themselves. Víctor Meléndez created the original art and designed the stamps. Antonio Alcalá was the art director.

New information will appear below the line, with the most recent at the top.

Updated November 7th:
Here are the Scott catalogue numbers for this issue:

  • 5812 (Donkey piñata facing left
  • 5813 (Star piñata with purple background
  • 5814 (Star piñata with green background
  • 5815 (Donkey piñata facing right
  • a. Block of 4, #5812-5815
  • b. Convertible booklet pane of 20, 5 each #5612-5615

Updated September 19th:
Here are the first-day cancels for this issue: The Digital Color Postmark measures 2.94″ x 1.20″ There is no pictorial postmark.

Updated August 19th from the Postal Bulletin:

On September 8, 2023, in Roswell, NM, the United States Postal Service® will issue the Piñatas! stamps (Forever® priced at the First-Class Mail® rate) in four designs, in a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) double-sided booklet of 20 stamps (Item 684400). These stamps will go on sale nationwide September 8, 2023, and must not be sold or canceled before the first-day-of-issue.

This issuance celebrates the fun and tradition of piñatas. The stamps feature four different digital illustrations of classic piñata designs — two are of a donkey with either a bright pink or orange background and two feature a 7-point star set against either a purple or green background. Víctor Meléndez created the original art and designed the stamps. Antonio Alcalá was the art director.

No automatic distribution.

How to Order the First-Day-of-Issue Postmark:
Customers have 120 days to obtain the first-day-of-issue postmark by mail. They may purchase new stamps at their local Post Office™ or at The Postal Store® website at store.usps.com/store/home. They must affix the stamps to envelopes of their choice, address the envelopes (to themselves or others), and place them in a larger envelope addressed to:

FDOI – Piñatas! Stamps
USPS Stamp Fulfillment Services
8300 NE Underground Drive, Suite 300
Kansas City, MO 64144-9900

After applying the first-day-of-issue postmark, the Postal Service™ will return the envelopes through the mail. There is no charge for the postmark up to a quantity of 50. There is a 5-cent charge for each additional postmark over 50. All orders must be postmarked by January 8, 2024.

Technical Specifications:

Issue: Piñatas! Stamps
Item Number: 684400
Denomination & Type of Issue: First-Class Mail Forever
Format: Double-sided Booklet of 20 (4 designs)
Series: N/A
Issue Date & City: September 8, 2023, Roswell, NM 88203
Designer: Victor Meléndez, Seattle, WA
Art Director: Antonio Alcalá, Alexandria, VA
Artist: Victor Meléndez
Modeler: Joseph Sheeran
Manufacturing Process: Offset
Printer: Ashton Potter (USA) Ltd (APU)
Press Type: Muller A76
Stamps per Booklet: 20
Print Quantity: 150,000,000 stamps
Paper Type: Nonphosphored Type III, Block Tagged
Adhesive Type: Pressure-sensitive
Colors: Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow
Stamp Orientation: Vertical
Image Area (w x h): 0.77 x 1.05 in / 19.558 x 26.67 mm
Stamp Size (w x h): 0.91 x 1.19 in / 23.114 x 30.226 mm
Booklet Size (w x h): 5.76 x 2.38 in / 146.304 x 60.452 mm
Plate Size: 880 stamps per revolution
Plate Numbers: “P” followed by four (4) single digits
Marginal Markings: Header: “Piñatas!” 20 First-Class Forever Stamps • ©2022 USPS in peel strip area • Barcode • USPS logo • Promotional text • Plate number in peel strip area

Updated May 31, 2023:
These stamps will be issued Friday, September 8, in Roswell, NM. Our guess is it will be in conjunction with the 36th Annual Pinata Festival, since the 34th (the most recent on Facebook) was also in early September.

12 thoughts on “Piñatas (US 2023)”

  5. I find it peculiar that in 2021 Day of the Dead came out in a pane of 20 and Linn’s called it commemorative. In 2022, Mariachi stamps came out in a pane of 20 and Linn’s called in a commemorative. This year, Pinata’s come out in a pane of 20 and they are saying definitive? Why the inconsistency. It seems like these are all the same sort of set, right?

    • Sorry, I meant booklet of 20 this year, not pane. Are format and quantity all they go on?

      • I did post this question on another site and got this response from Charles Snee:

        The Day of the Dead and Mariachi Music stamps are considered commemoratives because they honor specific things — a holiday celebration and a genre of music.

        The Pinata stamps are considered definitives because they celebrate an object that is more generic in nature, in a manner similar to the 2021 Espresso Drinks stamps.

        Print quantity and format also help determine a stamp’s category. The first two were issued in flat panes of 20, a commemorative format, in low quantities.

        Definitives are issued in much larger quantities and generally in more convenient formats such as double-sided panes of 20.

        • I think the categorizations are rather arbitrary. If there still were another major U.S. catalogue, it might label the issues differently. The real criterion might be what type of first-day cancel the USPS assigns, at least as far as how the postal agency views the issue. The “FIRST DAY OF ISSUE” postmark seems to indicate that the USPS feels this is a “mail-use” issue. Espresso also had FDOI. Mariachi and Dead had pictorial postmarks.

          • I’ll never expect to understand why the USPS does what they do. This seems like the start of a series or set to me, so why not keep it the same year to year, but oh well..

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