Virtual Stamp Club

The Best FDCs of 2025 The American First Day Cover Society has chosen the best cachets of the past calendar year. (A cachet is the design on the envelope or card that amplifies the stamp's subject.) Some are repeat winners, some are first-time entrants. As we have for nearly 30 years, VSC has the results.

The U.S. Postal Service has announced most of the issues it plans for 2026. They include obvious choices like the Declaration of Independence, Colorado Statehood and Year of the Horse, but some surprises like Barbie, Muhammad Ali and Bruce Lee. We have pictures of every announced issue.

Fetanyl

Here's the list:

U.S. 2026 Stamp Program

Last Updated July 31: Adds Scott numbers for American Icons. Corrects date for Global Wreath stamp. Notes that this site is a production of de Vries Philatelic Media, not any stamp society.

USPS Rates Just Went Up. The basic letter rate is now 82¢.

USPS Gets "Temporary" Fuel Surcharge for its shipping services (Priority and Express Mail, Ground Advantage, Parcel Select), but not first-class mail. The increase will run from April 26 through January 17 — unless of course the surcharge becomes permanent, like much of last winter's holiday surcharge.

The rules haven't changed but some U.S. post office clerks apparently don't know that they can postmark and then hand back philatelic items to customers. The USPS issued a "Retail Service Talk" recently reminding them of that, including citing its Postal Operations Manual, and we have a copy you can download and take with you on your Postmark Pursuits.

Tasty Treats on Dutch Stamps These new stamps are called "Write A Cake." [“Schrijf eens een taartje” in Dutch] They not only look like culinary confections, they smell like them, too — and you don't even have to scratch to sniff. Inhale more information here.

Scenic Wonders of Britain The United Kingdom has some of the most spectacular waterfalls in the world, and Royal Mail's ten new stamps celebrate them.

Canada's 2026 Stamp Program Canada Post isn't providing much detail. The Black History issue features hip-hop artists and there will be issues for Quebec's cabanes à sucre (sugar shacks), blood donations, wolves, jack o' lanterns, Chinese-Canadian

undercover agents and the Royal Canadian Legion, plus new entries in the Truth & Reconciliation, flowers, Eid, Diwali, Hanukkah and Christmas series. But there's a twist to this year's Indigenous Leaders series. (A hint is on the right.) See the initial announcement.

"Help! I just inherited this stamp collection!"
Just been given Aunt Matilda's old stamp collection and don't know what to do with it? We can help.

Want to Know What Other Collectors Think? The Virtual Stamp Club has its own comments section as well as a Facebook Group. Or visit the former home of The VSC (1996-2013), now called The Stamp Collecting Forum.

Quotable: "Car stamps always do well for us."
— U.S. Postal Service design Bryan Duefrene

Last Updated August 8