Stamp Services

Stamp Announcement 21-29: Day of the Dead Stamps

©2020 USPS

On September 30, 2021, in El Paso, TX, the United States Postal Service^® will issue the Day of the Dead stamps (Forever^® priced at the First-Class Mail^® rate) in four designs, in a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) pane of 20 stamps (Item 481400). These stamps will go on sale nationwide September 30, 2021, and must not be sold or canceled before the first-day-of-issue. The Day of the Dead pane of 20 stamps may not be split and the stamps may not be sold individually.

With the release of four colorful new stamps, the Postal Service™ celebrates Day of the Dead, an increasingly popular holiday in the United States. The stamp art features several iconic elements of a traditional Day of the Dead ofrenda, or offering, which honors departed relatives as well as heroes. Stylized, decorated “sugar skulls” are personalized as four family members, one per stamp. The lit candles flanking each sugar skull are beacons to guide deceased loved ones on their annual return journey to the land of the living. Dotting each stamp and embellishing their shared vertical borders are marigolds (cempazuchitles), the most popular Day of the Dead flower. Luis Fitch designed and illustrated the stamps. Antonio Alcalá was the art director.

Availability to Post Offices: Item 481400, Day of the Dead (Forever Priced at the First-Class Mail Rate) Commemorative PSA Pane of 20 Stamps

Stamp Fulfillment Services will not make an automatic push distribution to Post Offices. Post Offices may begin ordering stamps before the first-day-of-issue through SFS Web at sfsweb.usps.gov.

How to Order the First-Day-of-Issue Postmark

Customers have 120 days to obtain the first-day-of-issue postmark by mail. They may purchase new stamps at their local Post Office™ or at The Postal Store^® website at usps.com/shop. They must affix the stamps to envelopes of their choice, address the envelopes (to themselves or others), and place them in a larger envelope addressed to:

FDOI – Day of the Dead Stamps
USPS Stamp Fulfillment Services
8300 NE Underground Drive, Suite 300
Kansas City, MO 64144-9900

After applying the first-day-of-issue postmark, the Postal Service will return the envelopes through the mail. There is no charge for the postmark up to a quantity of 50. There is a 5-cent charge for each additional postmark over 50. All orders must be postmarked by January 30, 2022.

How to Order First-Day Covers

The Postal Service also offers first-day covers for new stamp issues and Postal Service stationery items postmarked with the official first-day-of-issue cancellation. Each item has an individual catalog number and is offered in the USA Philatelic catalog and online at usps.com/shop. Customers may register to receive a free USA Philatelic catalog online at usps.com/philatelic.

Locally produced items are not authorized. Only merchandise that has been approved and assigned an item number by Headquarters Retail Marketing may be produced and sold.

— Stamp Services, Marketing, 8-26-21