Help the USA get a Postcrossing Commemorative Stamp!

Postcards & Mail Mail, stamps & postal info
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Please help US Postcrossers get a stamp!

Write to:

Stamp Development
Attn: Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee
475 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Room 3300
Washington, DC 20260-3501
United States of America

With the recent two stamps on the blog, I was curious if anyone from the US (or, if there is a coordinated effort) had petitioned for a postcrossing themed stamp.

I read the requirements and I believe the stamp fits all the criteria for a petition. There is a criterion that could not be met; “U.S. postage stamps and stationery will primarily feature American or American-related subjects.” However, “Other subjects may be considered if the subject had significant impact on American history, culture or environment.” I would not go as far as to say postcrossing has had a significant impact on US history, but we are 3rd in postcrossing rankings for postcards sent, with nearly 8 million!! And this is only possible with the support of 71 thousand members! The postcrossing organization has continued to spark an interest in philately and US Postal history (not to mention the sheer amount of revenue generated by all that international shipping!)

With all of that in mind, I would like to petition for a postcrossing stamp, so I will send a postcard to the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee, those who accept and review stamp proposals in the US, and I encourage others to do the same (unless there is something I am missing, in which case, that’s my mistake.)

I have learned this much about the process of review:
1- you must submit proposals by US mail (which is fitting).
2-the committee meets quarterly, so they will not review the stamp suggestion immediately.

This is the address to send petitions in the form of letters and postcards. There is a one topic per letter rule.

For all other criteria and information this is the link to the committee webpage.

Other helpful information can be found Here and Here

Thank you for reading!

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I’m also curious about statistics beyond what you mentioned. I think it would be great to mention how many postcards are send daily, weekly, and/or monthly! I wonder how we could pull those stats?

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I’ll send them a postcard :+1:t3::postbox:

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I guess you are not the first one to think of this. I see this quite often on profiles of USA postcrossers:

"US POSTCROSSERS
Please join the campaign to request the U.S. Postal Service to issue a Postcrossing stamp!

https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/csac/welcome.htm

Spread the word by adding this info to your profile and then send a postcard (or write a letter) to:

Stamp Development
Attn: Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee
475 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Room 3300
Washington, DC 20260-3501”

I wonder if there is any information available anywhere about how many people have already written messages to the committee.
Keeping my fingers crossed for you to get your own Postcrossing stamp! :blush:

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I’ve sent postcards 2 times. I got back a form letter with the guidelines YouveGotMail showed in their post. I guess I should be happy we havent had many interesting new stamps lately - I have a whole binder of them already! But, seriously, I have the info on my profile that BrokkoliKayze has seen and I’ll continue to send in petitions. It would be nice to at least get a forever stamp celebrating letter or postcard writing. We’ve had them in the past.

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I’ll send a postcard.

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Have US Postcrossers in the past organized “letterbombing” before? Meaning that the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee would receiving a bunch of Postcrossing stamp requests around the same time (ideally hundreds)?
Another suggestion I would love to make is to request other nations that do have a stamp to write the Advisory Committee as well; I wonder if that would help out the cause if they see a beautiful Postcrossing stamp?
I found these suggestions on the Canadian thread on the same topic:

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How about we all send a postcard on WPD asking for a Postcrossing stamp?

Also, is there a template for what we should write on our postcards?

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I kind of wonder if this section disqualifies Postcrossing:

  1. Due to the limitations placed on annual postal programs and the vast number of locales, organizations and institutions in existence, it would be difficult to single out any one of the following for commemoration: government agencies, localities, non-profit organizations, associations, and similar entities. Stamps or stationery items shall not be issued to honor religious institutions or individuals whose principal achievements are associated with religious undertakings or beliefs. However, these subjects may be recognized with commemorative postmarks.
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Hmm…so the campaign for @meiadeleite personal commemorative stamp begins :wink:

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Here’s what we’re up against: the USPS will want to know if there’s a reasonable chance that they will be able to sell out (eventually) the entire printing run.

Let’s do the math:
A look at stamps for sale on USPS.com shows that the minimum print run for a first-class Forever stamp is 18 million.
Let’s say they get printed in sheets of 20. That’s 900K sheets.
We have about 72K Postcrossers in the US.
But lets say the stamp is so popular that we get an immediate 10% gain in Postcrossers! So let’s round that new number up to 80K.
Each Postcrosser in the US needs to buy 225 stamps to sell out the run.
That’s $135 face value at today’s FC Forever rate. So that’s a little less than 100 postcards at the Global rate.
How long would it take the average Postcrosser to use that up? Maybe 2-3 years, considering Postcrossers would use other stamps as well?
It MIGHT make sense financially?

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@mrichhcirm
Do the same thing for the postcard stamp. That is the stamp we need. Then we can use that and other stamps.

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OK. 225 times .44 = $99.

For the 2021 “Barns” stamps, USPS printed 500MM stamps…100MM in sheets and 400MM in rolls (most likely to be used by commercial mailers?).

So if you figure the 100MM on sheets will be for personal use, then I guess it’s not hard to imagine selling 18+MM to Postcrossers, and maybe having a 2-year supply before the next printing.

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Interesting - but wouldn’t the vast majority of US Postcrossers want an international stamp? I’m sure some Postcross within the US, as that is an option. But I would expect that the majority would be sending postcards internationally.

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Well, the trouble with the global stamp is its lack of versatility. I usually combine two FC forever stamps with another 20c to make up the necessary buck-forty. OR 3 postcard stamps + 2 4c stamps.

Or you can use a postcard stamp + an extra 16c to make FC domestic letter postage.

A global PC stamp is a good thought, but I’m not sure USPS wants to print a commemorative stamp with such limited application.

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I suppose you’re right about the profitability, however, it’s not ONLY the postcrossing community that would buy the stamps. If they had a pleasing design lots of people would buy them whether they knew the origin or not. Take, for example, the Raven Story stamps released a few years ago. They sold out on the first day of sale in my town and I could not get them for several months. I was surprised by this because I didn’t know there was such a demand. I imagine many did not know the Raven story of the Native Americans. The Kwanzaa stamps sold out too, and many to people who would only later learn about the origin of the holiday. I think that the postcrossing stamp would initially be bought by postcrossers but expanded interest in the site and regular people buying the stamps would make up for that gap in profitability you’re mentioning.

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Fair point. So do we pitch a creative concept to the USPS? I think that would be more persuasive than just “we want a Postcrossing stamp”.

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I support this effort, and I’m sure the rest of the Postcrossing community would be happy to push for a US Postcrossing stamp too! :muscle: It would be brilliant for all the US postcrossers!

Could someone maybe create a topic (or tweak this one) so that the address and the appeal for everyone to send postcards to the committee is front and center, like on the Canadian topic mentioned above?

We can then spread the word about it, and hopefully send a mini-avalanche of postcards to them. I don’t think we’ll make it on the first try… but after a few campaigns and many postcards, they’ll probably take notice. Like they say around here, “soft water on hard rock will eventually poke a hole” !

(it sounds better in Portuguese :sweat_smile:)

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I am sending a postcard for world postcard day. I moved the address to the top. :slight_smile: Also, that is a great phrase.

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When you guys are sending mail, what are you writing? I would love to send them a card for WPD but am stumped on what to write! (Also, I’m from the states and can send via USPS from an APO :relaxed:)

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