Supposed 2025 US Stamps

On another stamp forum, I saw the following. Still awaiting the "official" USPS announcement, which SHOULD be out very soon.

"In January 2025, the USPS will be issuing the new Year of the Snake stamp in the Lunar New Year series, a new Black Heritage stamp, and a new Love stamp.

An issue date is not finalized but in early 2025 the USPS will also issue 2 new stamps featuring space telescope images for Priority Mail and Express Mail."

"a new love stamp"

Have they no imagination.

It appears USPS has settled on issuing a new stamp every year for a few long-term series: Love, Chinese New Year, Black Heritage, and to a lesser extent, the Distinguished Americans series.

Of course, with the constant price increases, we can be assured of at least one new rate stamp each for Priority and Express Mail services; more likely two. Surprisingly, they have neglected the Butterfly stamp series for non-machineable mail and for the circular International First Class rates.

We need more flag stamps.

Yeah ... flags & flowers. Can always use more!

I love the flag, but .................

How about asking the members of forums like this one for ideas for new stamps.

The process for suggesting new stamp ideas is out dated and too cumbersome. It is a digital -online world . Using this would get lots of ideas.

How about a series on mobile phones , or pictures taken by mobile phones.

thanks for listening

ken

I was being facetious about more flag stamps. The USPS needs to break out of it's safe space and go for new topics. Would love to see engraving make a return. Lord knows they have the money.

Most of the program is just an update to last year. They could skip a year for many since they are forever stamps. It is not like the same couple gets married every year.

The "Love Stamps" are quite popular for wedding planners. The popularity is so great that some of the discontinued designs sell in the after market at well over face value. This applies to both the single rate and double rate examples.

As for U.S. Flag stamps, the USPS since the 1960 has followed an unwritten guideline to always have at least one variety of a Flag stamp in circulation, thus a new Flag stamp (or stamps) pretty much every year. John Hotchner has written about this a couple of times, including here: http://virtualstampclub.com/lloydblog/?p=5021

As for submitting ideas, the process is simple and hardly outated. Yes, you actually have to write a letter and mail it - imagine that! This prompts someone submitting to think about their idea and formulate some good background information and support for the idea. It doesn't have to be long - a couple of paragraphs will do.

This old-school process also eliminates having to pay postal employees to scroll through gazillions of trolling and inappropriate comments via digital form (a website or email). And, yes, you know if this were the process, the amount of digital junk USPS officials would have to scroll through would easily be way more than the 40,000 to 50,000 suggestions received annually.

For those interested, here are the guidelines from the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee to submit ideas: https://about.usps.com/who/csac/#criteria

The address is: Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee, c/o Stamp Management, U.S. Postal Service, 475 L'Enfant Plaza, SW, Room 4474E, Washington, D.C. 20260-2437.

I asked one of the AI products for some stamp subjects that haven't been used before and got this response:

"That's a wonderful idea! Considering the vast tapestry of American culture and history, there are still many subjects that could be celebrated on a postage stamp. Here's one idea:

Women in Science and Technology: While some individual women scientists have been honored, a series of stamps celebrating the collective contributions of women in various fields of science and technology could be both inspiring and educational. Figures like Katherine Johnson, Rosalind Franklin, and Grace Hopper have made groundbreaking contributions, and it would be great to acknowledge their achievements."

I would love to see a series on historical events that has a QR code which brings you to a website which teaches about the stamp's subject in an interesting way. Make it fun and engaging. Probably pie in the sky however now that the internet provides a vast universe of information. If they are going to stick with flowers and flags, they might as well just print "Forever" on a black background and save some time.

You know what I wish they'd do for definitives instead of the incessant "flag" obsession?

What if we could "learn" something from the stamps? Make little square definitives with stuff like "poisonous snakes of the US" on them, or "ways to compost food waste at home" or "ways to spot child abuse" or...stuff like that. Or even cover new inventions, or history of inventions (television, cars, stuff like that).

I am "SO" tired of wondering what the next "flag" designs are going to be. I liked the "Flag for all Seasons" set of (4), but they had different colors on them. The 32c "Flag on Porch" was good but because of the myriad different varieties they produced. The rest of them are just exhausting.

Engraved stamps would be nice--and VERY hard to counterfeit in a world of laser printing. I'd LOVE to see some lick-n-stick again! Even the souvenir sheets are self-adhesive. I managed to get a postally used "Jenny" stamp S/S by pasting the whole sheet onto a paper that I attached to a package. When I got it back, I soaked it off and since the self-adhesive don't soak off anymore, the sheet stayed together :-}

I had collected since I was a kid, but one of the reasons I set it aside in the early 90s was because the US stamp issues were so ugly and uninspired. When I started again in 2008, I went with worldwide, so it was a lot more fun than just US. I'm more interested in US now, but those "flag" stamps are just exhausting!

No one even wants commemoratives anymore, just "a book of stamps" which results in flag or X-Mas stamps. Geez!

Josh

Josh - Exactly!

The last modern US stamp that really excited me was the Transcontinental Railroad group of designs. Just spectacular.

Josh:

Ditto.

Today's stamps, for the most part, resemble stickers..
US stamps USED to illustrate and teach national history - one of the biggest motivators for getting kids interested in stamp collecting. It tied in with their school work.