WASHINGTON — With the dedication of its fourth semipostal stamp today, the U.S. Postal Service is helping to save vanishing species 11-cents at a time — specifically tigers, African and Asian elephants, rhinos, great apes and marine turtles. The net proceeds from the sales of the new Save Vanishing Species semipostal stamp will be transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to support the Multinational Species Conservation Funds.

“This stamp marks the fourth semipostal issued by the Postal Service. These types of stamps provide an extremely convenient way for the American public to contribute to help protect threatened and vanishing species,” said Kelly Sigmon, vice president, Channel Access. “We look forward to working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Multinational Species Coalition to make this stamp a success.”

Five million sheets of stamps will be made available initially and will be reprinted based on customer demand. The stamps sell for 55 cents each — 11 cents more than an individual First-Class Mail stamp —and $11 per sheet of 20.

At an event held at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park, Sigmon was joined by Teiko Saito, assistant director, International Affairs, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; Joshua Ginsberg, senior vice president, Conservation Operations, Wildlife Conservation Society, and Ginette Hemley, senior vice president, Conservation Strategy & Sciences, World Wildlife Fund, and Dennis Kelly, director, Smithsonian National Zoo, to dedicate the new stamp and pay tribute to some of the world’s more prominent vanishing species.

The Multinational Species Coalition is an alliance of conservationists, zoos, veterinarians, animal welfare groups, circuses and sportsmen. The coalition was created to advocate for the Multinational Species Conservation Funds and is committed to bringing greater attention to this stamp and the funds it was designed to support. The funds will be divided among the African Elephant Conservation Fund, Asian Elephant Conservation Fund, Great Ape Conservation Fund, Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Fund and Marine Turtle Conservation Fund.

The stamp features an illustration of a tiger cub by artist Nancy Stahl. The artwork on the full sheet of 20 stamps is dark green and includes silhouettes of a rhinoceros, a tiger, a gorilla, Asian and African elephants and a marine turtle. Stahl based both the stamp art and the silhouettes on photographs of wildlife. The phrases “Save Vanishing Species” and “Amur tiger cub” appear on the left side of the stamp. Derry Noyes served as the art director, designer and typographer for the stamp.

Legislation creating the semipostal stamp was passed and signed into law in September 2010 as the Multinational Species Conservation Funds Semipostal Stamp Act of 2010.

Prior to today’s issuance, three semipostal stamps have been issued by the U.S. Postal Service. Today, only the Breast Cancer Research stamp is still available for purchase:

• Breast Cancer Research, 1998–current. Net proceeds of nearly $75 million to date have gone to the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense.
• Heroes of 2001, 2002–2004. Net proceeds of $10.5 million went to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. No longer available.
• Stop Family Violence, 2003–2006. Net proceeds of $3.1 million went to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. No longer available.

A Save Vanishing Species note card set, which contains 10 blank cards featuring the image of the stamp, 10 envelopes and 10 stamps, and sells for $15.95, is available in select post offices and online at usps.com/shop. The Save Vanishing Species stamps are available for purchase online as well.

The Multinational Species Coalition includes:

For more information on the semipostal stamp and the coalition, visit fws.gov/international/semipostal.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

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A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. We’re everywhere so you can be anywhere: www.uspseverywhere.com. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $67 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 29th in the 2010 Fortune 500. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency six consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.