The United States Postal Service announced on Monday the release of specially designed stamps and a prestige booklet to commemorate 250 years of postal service in the nation.
The agency’s “250 Years of Delivering” Forever stamps and the Putting a Stamp on the American Experience booklet will mark the milestone.
Why It Matters
The postal system in the U.S. first began operations in 1775 and remains one of the country’s most recognized federal institutions, delivering mail to almost 169 million addresses across the nation.
USPS
The 250th anniversary comes as President Donald Trump pursues a far-reaching shake-up of the service. In May he moved to replace Louis DeJoy with FedEx board member David Steiner as postmaster general—a step Brian Renfroe, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, called “privatization-by-proxy.”
Trump has also floated dissolving the USPS’s bipartisan board of governors and folding the 650,000-employee agency into the Commerce Department, a move critics warn would strip the institution of its political independence.
What To Know
The central release, “250 Years of Delivering,” features a pane of 20 interconnected Forever stamps. This design offers a bird’s-eye view of a bustling town, using sequential artwork to tell the story of a mail carrier’s journey through four seasons. Cartoonist Chris Ware created the illustrations and co-designed the pane with Antonio Alcalá, a USPS art director.
The accompanying 32-page prestige booklet, Putting a Stamp on the American Experience, contains two self-adhesive sheets of a new Forever stamp depicting Benjamin Franklin, America’s first postmaster general. This stamp is a modern reinterpretation of the original five-cent Franklin stamp first issued in 1847.
Franklin, appointed postmaster general by the Second Continental Congress in 1775, has since appeared on more than 130 U.S. stamps.
Customers can purchase the stamps and additional merchandise via the Postal Store, by telephone (844-737-7826), by mail through USA Philatelic, or at Post Office locations nationwide. USPS also offers officially licensed stamp products on Amazon.
Additional 2025 USPS stamp releases include tributes to the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps on their 250th anniversaries, a World Stamp Show-themed issue for Boston 2026, and a new American Flag Forever stamp.
What People Are Saying
Acting Postmaster General Doug Tulino said in an April press release: “The founders of our great nation saw the intrinsic need of postal services as the United States was born — even before the country itself was formed. Since that time, our universal mail system has strengthened the bonds of friendship, family and community. The Postal Service remains a great organization connecting our nation and helping power our economy. We are proud to help set the stage for the 250th anniversary of the United States next year, and we look forward to continuing to serve the American public for another 250 years.”
What Happens Next
The USPS will officially release the “250 Years of Delivering stamps” and the prestige booklet on July 23 at its Washington, D.C. headquarters. The ceremony is free and open to the public, with registration encouraged at usps.com/usps250years.
Additional commemorative activities, merchandise launches, and educational programs are expected throughout the year as the postal system continues its anniversary celebrations.