Stamp Services

Stamp Announcement 22-18: Women’s Rowing Stamps

©2021 USPS

On May 13, 2022, in Philadelphia, PA, the United States Postal Service^® will issue the Women’s Rowing stamps (Forever^® priced at the First-Class Mail^® rate) in four designs, in a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) pane of 20 stamps (Item 482100). These stamps will go on sale nationwide May 13, 2022, and must not be sold or canceled before the first-day-of-issue. The Women’s Rowing commemorative pane of 20 stamps may not be split and the stamps may not be sold individually.

This issuance celebrates women’s rowing, a graceful but demanding sport in which American women have excelled. Four different stamp designs are featured in a pane of 20 stamps arranged as five staggered rows of four. The artwork, which covers the entire pane, is a stylized illustration of five 8-person crews on the water, apparently practicing or possibly racing. The eight rowers, featured in the four stamps, face left. The ninth person in each shell, the coxswain, shown in the selvage, faces the direction the shell is moving, as her job is to steer. Nancy Stahl designed and illustrated the stamps and pane. Ethel Kessler was the project art director.

Availability to Post Offices: Item 482100, Women’s Rowing (Forever Priced at the First-Class Mail Rate) 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/sfsweb.

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 store.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 – Women’s Rowing 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 September 13, 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 store.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, 4-21-22