Announced by the USPS July 24th:
With this new stamp, the Postal Service celebrates Kwanzaa with the seventh stamp since 1997 designed for the annual Pan-African holiday. Kwanzaa takes place over seven days from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1, and brings family, community and culture together for many African-Americans.
The stamp depicts a man, woman and child adorned in a mixture of western and traditional clothing, paying tribute to the holiday’s focus on the contemporary African-American experience, while also drawing on African roots. The family is gathered around a kinara (candleholder), the warm light from seven candles (mishumaa saba) illuminating their faces. Several other important Kwanzaa symbols sit on the table — a few ears of corn (muhindi) and various fruits and vegetables (mazao); the kikombe cha umoja (unity cup); and the mkeka, a straw mat on top of which everything is placed.
Created in 1966 during the height of the Black Freedom Movement, Kwanzaa was conceived as a unifying holiday during initiatives to end racial oppression in the United States. It draws on African traditions, deriving its name from the Swahili phrase “matunda ya kwanza,” meaning “first fruits.” With origins in Africa’s ancient and modern first-harvest festivities, Kwanzaa synthesizes and reimagines many of these communal traditions as a contemporary celebration and reaffirmation of African-American culture.
Artist Floyd Cooper worked with art director Derry Noyes, who designed the stamp.
Updated July 26th:
This stamp will be issued in Raleigh, NC, on October 10th. Ceremony details to be announced.
Updated August 30th:
On October 10, 2018, in Raleigh, NC, the U.S. Postal Service will issue the Kwanzaa 2018 stamp (Forever priced at the First-Class Mail rate) in one design, in a pressure-sensitive adhesive pane of 20 stamps (Item 565800). The stamp will go on sale nationwide October 10, 2018, and must not be sold or canceled before the first-day-of-issue.
With this new stamp, the Postal Service continues its tradition of celebrating Kwanzaa. The annual holiday, which takes place over 7 days from December 26 to January 1, brings family, community, and culture together for many African Americans. The stamp depicts a small family adorned in a mixture of western and traditional clothing, paying tribute to the holiday’s focus on the contemporary African-American experience while also drawing on African roots. They are gathered around a kinara (candleholder), the warm light from the seven candles illuminating their faces. Several other important Kwanzaa symbols sit on the table. Artist Floyd Cooper used a method he calls “oil erasure” — covering an illustrated board in oil paint and then erasing layers of paint to reveal his images — to create this design of familial love and connection. Art director Derry Noyes designed the stamp.
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 usps.com/shop. 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 – Kwanzaa 2018 Stamp
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 February 10, 2019.
Technical Specifications:
Issue: Kwanzaa 2018 Stamp
Item Number: 565800
Denomination & Type of Issue: First-Class Mail Forever
Format: Pane of 20 (1 design)
Series: N/A
Issue Date & City: October 10, 2018, Raleigh, NC 27676
Art Director: Derry Noyes, Washington, DC
Designer: Derry Noyes, Washington, DC
Typographer: Derry Noyes, Washington, DC
Artist: Floyd Cooper, Easton, PA
Modeler: Sandra Lane/Michelle Finn
Manufacturing Process: Offset, Microprint
Printer: Banknote Corporation of America
Press Type: Alprinta 74
Stamps per Pane: 20
Print Quantity: 15,000,000 stamps
Paper Type: Phosphor Tagged Paper Overall
Adhesive Type: Pressure-sensitive
Processed at: Banknote Corporation of America
Colors: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black
Stamp Orientation: Vertical
Image Area (w x h): 0.77 x 1.05 in/19.558 x 26.67 mm
Overall Size (w x h): 0.91 x 1.19 in/23.114 x 30.226 mm
Full Pane Size (w x h): 5.425 x 5.635 in/137.795 x 143.129 mm
Press Sheet Size (w x h): 16.275 x 11.27 in/413.39 x 286.26 mm
Plate Size: 240 stamps per revolution
Plate Numbers: “B” followed by four (4) digits
Marginal Markings:
Front: Plate numbers in four corners
Back: ©2018 USPS • USPS Logo • Two barcodes (565800) • Plate position diagram • Promotional text
Added September 8th:
Here are the first-day postmarks for this issue:
The Digital Color postmark measures 2.92″x1.29″
The B&W pictorial measures 2.98″x1.37″
Updated September 20th:
[press release]
Postal Service Dedicating Kwanzaa Forever Stamp
What: The U.S. Postal Service continues its tradition of celebrating Kwanzaa, an annual Pan-African holiday that brings family, community, and culture together for many African Americans. News of the stamp is being shared with the hashtag #KwanzaaStamps.
When: Wednesday, Oct.10, 2018, 11 a.m., Eastern Daylight Time
Where: North Carolina State University
Witherspoon Student Center
African American Cultural Center
2810 Cates Avenue
Raleigh, NC 27606
[According to its website, the Student Center has a 500-seat auditorium. —VSC]
Followers of the U.S. Postal Service’s Facebook page can view the ceremony live at facebook.com/USPS.
Background: With this new stamp design, the U.S. Postal Service continues its tradition of celebrating Kwanzaa, the annual Pan-African holiday, which takes place over seven days from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1 and brings family, community and culture together for many African-Americans.
The stamp art depicts a man, woman and child adorned in a mixture of western and traditional clothing, paying tribute to the holiday’s focus on the contemporary African-American experience while also drawing on African roots. The family is gathered around a kinara (candleholder), the warm light from the seven candles (mishumaa saba) illuminating their faces. Several other important Kwanzaa symbols sit on the table — a few ears of corn (muhindi) and various fruits and vegetables (mazao); the kikombe cha umoja(unity cup); and the mkeka, a straw mat on top of which everything is placed.
Each year, millions of African-Americans gather with friends and family throughout the week of Kwanzaa to honor the holiday’s seven founding principles — unity (Umoja), self-determination (Kujichagulia), collective work and responsibility (Ujima), cooperative economics (Ujamaa), purpose (Nia), creativity (Kuumba) and faith (Imani). Each day of Kwanzaa is dedicated to the focus of one of these seven principles, collectively known as the Nguzo Saba.
Artist Floyd Cooper worked with art director Derry Noyes, who designed the stamp.
This is the seventh stamp design issued by the Postal Service in celebration of Kwanzaa. The first Kwanzaa commemorative stamp was issued in 1997. New designs also were issued in 2004, 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2016.
The Kwanzaa stamp is being issued as a Forever stamp. This Forever stamp will always be equal to the current First-Class Mail 1-ounce price.
Five centuries ago, Francesco d’Ubertino Verdi (1494–1557), the Italian Renaissance painter known as Bachiacca, proved himself to be a versatile and popular Florentine artist. Today, his work still vividly evokes the timeless traditions of Christmas.
Photo by Lloyd A. de Vries, taken May 5, 2017.
The Digital Color postmark measures 2.71″x1.46″
The B&W pictorial measures 2.36″x1.43″
On August 26, 2018, in Kansas City, MO, the U.S. Postal Service® will issue the Global Poinsettia stamp (Global Forever® priced at the First-Class Mail International® rate) in one design, in a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) pane of 10 stamps (565900). The stamp will go on sale nationwide August 26, 2018.
It measures 2.47″ x 1.49″. Here is the B&W pictorial postmark:
It measures 2.94 x 1.44″.
I’m often critical of the USPS, but this decision makes no sense to me. The justices say the agency made $2.1 billion from the sale of 4.9 billion stamps. That’s the gross, at 44 cents per stamp. The printing cost is a small fraction of the selling price, but a stamp represents a payment, whether it’s a tax on alcohol or playing cards, or, in the case of postage stamps, for delivering a piece of mail.
Most of us would be thrilled to see our work on a postage stamp, nationally distributed through more than 30,000 retail outlets and ending up in millions of homes and businesses.
The mistake, as well as other incorrect stamp designs (the wrong African-American cowboy’s picture, putting the Grand Canyon in the wrong state, and, of course, the Korean War Veterans Memorial stamp), are affecting my part of stamp collecting: The USPS now triple-checks everything, runs it all past attorneys, then triple-checks everything again, and first day cover collectors and servicers are getting information about new issues later and later. “Even though George Washington had no children of his own, have we checked all the descendants of his stepdaughters to see if we have permission to use ‘Washington’ in a postmark?”
The Forever stamps, showing frosty, colorful ice pops on a stick in a variety of shapes and flavors, went on sale earlier this summer, and are the first scratch-and-sniff stamps ever issued by the U.S. Those attending will be able to come away with these stamps, and possibly sticky fingers, too.
When my children were in the 8- to 12-year-old range, each one in turn tried stamp collecting. Three of the four even did exhibits. They did not have to be cajoled into it by a clearly involved helicopter father. Rather they were I think curious what I found so attractive, and got involved through participation in a Ben Franklin Stamp Club established at their school (a system the USPS sponsored nationwide; providing a monthly multi-color newsletter and other support materials such as membership cards, etc.). I was the adult sponsor for the local school’s club.
So, in this day of $200 sneakers, $75 jeans being sold new with ripped knees, must-have electronics, and designer tops for kids that adults can’t afford, is it any wonder that money is high on the radar screens of kids who are probably not told enough, “No, we can’t afford that!”
interested in how high they could score playing Pac-Man and the immediate feedback that offered, than in spending time on the laborious process of building a stamp collection; which offered no element of competition among their peers, and little in the way of immediate feedback.
We did it as kids because we had time on our hands, with few other distractions, and we enjoyed the act of organizing our collection, and the pride of learning about other nations, and American history from stamps.
Visitors to Canada could be excused for thinking that an intense interest in the weather – not hockey – is our national pastime. Too cold, too hot or just right – Canadians always have something to say on the subject. Yet nothing inspires meteorological murmurs more than some of the fleeting (but fabulous) phenomena that can appear when weather permits.
weather- themed issue from 2015, showcase five other weather wonders: 
appear when tiny ice crystals in the air reflect light from artificial sources. Awoken one cold January night by his young son, Timmy noticed the strange lights out the bathroom window. “Red, blue, green, yellow, purple and pink lights seemed to beam up in to the air,” Elzinga explains. “It almost looked like something out of Star Trek.”
NORTH BAY, ON, July 26, 2018 /CNW/ – We talk about it in the elevators and hallways of our work. We monitor it morning, noon and night, dress up for it and plan our days around it. We obsess about it, and are captivated by its beauty and force. The weather – in all its wonder – takes centre stage again in Canada Post’s latest stamp issue.
Garry M. Cass photographed a magnificent, if not menacing, waterspout over Lake Ontario near Toronto. These swirling funnels of water can be just as dangerous as land-based twisters.
r waking to tend to a crying child. It was “like something out of Star Trek,” prompting him to open his bathroom window, remove the screen and take “as many pictures as possible.” When posted online, the images went viral, drawing worldwide attention.
Perro and illustrated by Julius Csotonyi, have their own unique story.
Native to Canadian waters, the 
Once assessed as a special concern by COSEWIC but no longer considered at risk, the 
The slow-swimming 
A visitor to our Atlantic coast, the 
ANCOUVER, July 12, 2018 /CNW/ – Experts note that between 400 and 500 shark species inhabit the world’s oceans and waterways. These fish can be less than a foot long or larger than a bus. From fierce hunters that breach waves and ambush prey, to gentle giants known to nudge kayaks and bask with scuba divers, sharks are compelling and often misunderstood.
The 
in Canada (COSEWIC).
Australia Post is celebrating the birth of His Royal Highness Prince Louis of Cambridge with the release of a new commemorative stamp.
CALGARY, June 29, 2018 /CNW/ – Celestial events like meteor showers, solar and lunar eclipses, comets and asteroids make headlines because they inspire a sense of wonder. Canada Post’s latest stamps are sure to do the same. They showcase the majestic splendour of two spectacular phenomena: the Milky Way and the Northern Lights.
The Milky Way, a spiral galaxy containing our solar system and hundreds of billions of stars, manifests as an ethereal band of light in Quinn’s ghostly image. The brilliant colour of the Northern Lights is green in Dyer’s photo but can also appear in undulating reds, blues, yellows, pinks and purples. The phenomenon occurs when charged particles released by the Sun interact with the Earth’s magnetic field and upper atmosphere.
