WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service previewed the image of the Alzheimer’s Semipostal fundraising stamp today.

It also announced the stamp will be dedicated at 10 a.m., Thursday, Nov. 30 at Johns Hopkins Asthma & Allergy Center Atrium, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, 5501 Hopkins Bayview Circle, Baltimore, MD 21224.

Available nationwide Nov. 30, the Alzheimer’s Semipostal stamp will be sold for 60 cents. The price includes the first-class single-piece postage rate in effect at the time of purchase plus an amount to fund Alzheimer’s research. By law, revenue from sales of the Alzheimer’s Semipostal stamp — minus the postage paid and the reimbursement of reasonable costs incurred by the Postal Service — will be distributed to the National Institutes of Health, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The event is free and open to the public. RSVP is required to attend the ceremony. Please RSVP at usps.com/alzheimers. Followers of the U.S. Postal Service’s Facebook page can view the first-day-of-issue ceremony live at facebook.com/USPS. Customers may pre-order the stamps at usps.com/shop in early November for delivery shortly after the Nov. 30 issuance. Please share the news on social media using the hashtag #AlzheimersStamp.

Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer Megan J. Brennan will dedicate the stamp. In attendance will be Kathy Siggins of Mount Airy, MD, who followed the discretionary semipostal program criteria for submitting the stamp suggestion. Siggins’ husband succumbed to the disease in 1999. 

The artwork is an illustration that first appeared on the 2008 42-cent Alzheimer's Awareness stamp. It shows an older woman in profile with a caring hand on her shoulder with the suggestion of sunlight behind her and clouds in front of and below her. On the 2008 stamp, she was facing left; the artwork for this stamp shows her facing right to help differentiate between the two stamps. Stamp artist Matt Mahurin of Topanga Canyon, CA, worked under the direction of art director Ethel Kessler of Bethesda, MD.

The Semipostal Authorization Act, Pub. L. 106–253, grants the U.S. Postal Service discretionary authority to issue and sell semipostal fundraising stamps to advance such causes as it considers to be ‘‘in the national public interest and appropriate.’’ Under the program, the Postal Service intends to issue five semipostal fundraising stamps over a 10-year period, with each stamp to be sold for no more than two years. The Alzheimer’s Semipostal stamp is the first and will be followed by a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) semipostal stamp to be issued in 2019. The next three discretionary semipostal stamps have not yet been determined. 

Under the Act, the Postal Service will consider proposals for future semipostals until May 20, 2023. The Federal Register notice outlining this program can be found at the following url:  https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-04-20/pdf/2016-09081.pdf.   

Proposals will only be considered if they meet all submission requirements and selection criteria. They may be submitted by mail to the following address:

Office of Stamp Services
Attn: Semipostal Discretionary Program
475 L’Enfant Plaza SW., Room 3300
Washington, DC 20260–3501

Suggestions may also be submitted in a single Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) file sent by email to semipostal@usps.gov. Indicate in the Subject Line: Semipostal Discretionary Program.

There are currently two semipostal stamps available for sale that has been mandated by Congress. These are the Breast Cancer Research Semipostal which has raised more than $86.1 million and the Save Vanishing Species Semipostal which has raised more than $4.3 million as of September 2017. Visit this link for additional information.

All postage stamps are available for purchase at Post Offices, online at usps.com, and by toll-free phone order at 1-800 STAMP-24.

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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