Who:

Monterey Park Mayor Peter Chan
Monterey Park Postmaster Donna Sosa

What:

Will unveil and dedicate the Year of the Monkey commemorative Forever® stamp, the ninth of twelve stamps in the Postal Service’s Celebrating Lunar New Year series.  

This is the First Day of Sale of the new stamp and a collectible special pictorial postmark will be available and applied at no charge to any card or envelope with the stamp affixed. Special philatelic merchandise will also be available.

Besides celebrating the new Lunar New Year stamp, the Monterey Park Post Office will host a free Grow Your Business Day event, where local retailers and businesses can get information and advice on how to market themselves and ship orders quickly, easily, and cost-effectively.

When:

11:00 a.m. PT
Friday, Feb. 5, 2016

Where:

Monterey Park Post Office
245 Garvey Avenue
Monterey Park CA 91754

Background:

The Year of the Monkey begins on February 8, 2016, and ends on January 27, 2017.

The stamp art depicts two bright reddish orange peonies against a purple background. Peonies symbolize wealth and honor in Chinese culture and often decorate the sides of the traditional drums played during the holiday festivities.

Artist Kam Mak created this original painting. Art director and stamp designer Ethel Kessler incorporated elements from the previous series of Lunar New Year stamps — Clarence Lee’s intricate cut-paper design of a monkey and the Chinese character for “monkey,” drawn in grass-style calligraphy by Lau Bun — to create continuity between the stamps in the series.

The Year of the Monkey stamp is being issued nationally Feb. 5 in Jamaica, N.Y. as a Forever® stamp in self-adhesive sheets of 12 stamps for $5.88. Fifteen million Year of the Monkey stamps are being produced. Forever® stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce postage rate.