From the USPS press release November 15, 2024:
Useful for mailing a 1-ounce letter to any country in which First-Class Mail International service is available, this stamp carries with it a bit of history. The colorful compass rose was drawn in a school geography notebook by Lucia Wadsworth, the aunt of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, when she was 10 years old. Greg Breeding, an art director for USPS, designed the stamp.
Updates will be added below line, with the most recent at the top.
Updated February 28th:
The Scott catalogue number for this issue is 5956.
Updated December 26th:
Here are the first-day postmarks for this issue:
The Digital Color Postmark measures 2.76″x1.25″
There is no pictorial postmark for this issue (although a show cancel is likely).
Updated December 12th:
On January 24, 2025, in Peachtree Corners, GA, the United States Postal Service® will issue the 1794 Compass Rose Global Forever® International rate stamp, in one design, in a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) pane of 10 stamps (Item 581700). This stamp will go on sale nationwide January 24, 2025, and must not be sold or canceled before the first-day-of-issue.
[This is the location and first day of the Southeastern Stamp Expo.]
1794 Compass Rose is a new Global stamp that can be used to mail a one-ounce letter to any country in which First-Class Mail International® service is available. A compass rose is a round figure on a map that helps users of the map orient themselves by showing the direction of north and other points of the compass. The stamp is round and features a colorful compass rose from the Collections of Maine Historical Society, drawn by Lucia Wadsworth, the aunt of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in her school geography notebook when she was 10 years old. Art director Greg Breeding designed the stamp.
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 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 – 1794 Compass Rose 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 May 24, 2025.
Technical Specifications:
Issue: 1794 Compass Rose Stamp
Item Number: 581700
Denomination & Type of Issue: Global Forever International Rate
Format: Pane of 10 (1 design)
Series: N/A
Issue Date & City: January 24, 2025, Peachtree Corners, GA 30092
Art Director: Greg Breeding, Charlottesville, VA
Designer: Greg Breeding, Charlottesville, VA
Existing Art: Lucia Wadsworth
Modeler: Joseph Sheeran
Manufacturing Process: Offset, Microprint
Printer: Ashton Potter (USA) Ltd. (APU)
Press Type: Muller A76
Stamps per Pane: 10
Print Quantity: 40,000,000
Paper Type: Nonphosphored Type III, Block Tag
Adhesive Type: Pressure-sensitive
Stamp Orientation: Round
Image Area (w x h): 1.2000 x 1.2000 in. / 30.4800 x
30.4800 mm.
Stamp Size (w x h): 1.4100 x 1.4100 in. / 35.8140 x
35.8140 mm.
Full Pane Size (w x h): 8.5000 x 4.0900 in. / 215.9000 x 103.8860 mm.
Colors: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, PMS 3546 C, PMS 575 C
Plate Size: 180 stamps per revolution
Plate Number: “P” followed by six (6) single digits
Marginal Markings:
Front: Plate number in four corners of pane
Back: © 2024 USPS • USPS logo • Barcode (581700) behind each stamp • Plate position diagram (9) • Promotional text
Humm: No change to Domestic FOREVER, but 3.2% increase would make this one $1.70. Maybe?
‘Price Change Date’: 19 JAN 2025.
From Post Bull 12 DEC: Global FOREVER Compass Rose 24 JAN 2025 Peachtree Corner GA NOT on Auto-Distrib 5817xx 4-Bar and DCP FDoI.
Incorrect. The Global Forever rate is not going up. It is a Market Dominate Rate (meaning the USPS has a monopoly on letter mail). The rate will remain $1.65, probably until July 2025.
Like it. Finally a round international air mail stamp that looks like an airmail stamp. Sort of. More or less. Would still like to see a vintage airliner series.
So far the best overall stamp design year in a very long time. Even with a bit of subject overlap, and way too many “scenic” stamps for a single year (even if all the designs are good and make sense). A very good flag stamp (keep it for awhile–no reason to change them EVERY year).
But I have faith we’ve only seen half the list and they will still dilute it with way too many designs, and a few real turkeys.
Agreed–way too many stamps. Pricing most casual collectors right out of the hobby. Oh to remember the days as a child collector when I could go to the PO and buy one of each.
Yep. That was me too starting 52 years ago right about now. Was fascinated a few years before by the first loose FDC’s I saw. Took me awhile to figure out what the hobby was and that blank cachets were publicly available.
Rode the bus downtown to buy a (print) copy of Linn’s Stamp News at a specialty newsstand, just about this time of year. It just so happened to have a large Artcraft ad offering blank envelopes for the announced subjects for 1973. My order went in quickly and I was in.
Probably have 98 percent of the issues for the first 45 years. But when the need for stamps shrank AND the post office started insisting on minimum quantities; I got more selective.
Southeastern Stamp Expo 2025 will be hosting a first day ceremony (I’m organizing it) for the stamp on Friday January 24 at 11AM, likely in the Medlock Auditorium of the Hilton Atlanta Northeast hotel (show site), located at 5993 Peachtreee Industrial Blvd, Peachtree Corners, GA 30092. There is no charge to attend the ceremony. Admission to the show is $7.00 per family, good for all three days of the show, and includes two raffle tickets. Show information is at http://www.sefsc.org/latest-news.html
Nice design, and good potential for combo FDCs with one of the stamps honoring Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.