USPS To Release Stamps Celebrating Boston 2026 World Stamp Expo

What:

At the 2025 Great American Stamp Show in Schaumburg IL, the U.S. Postal Service will issue a set of stamps in anticipation of the Boston 2026 World Stamp Exposition. Issued to celebrate this once-a-decade extravaganza, these two stamps highlight the special role of Boston in the American Revolution as the Postal Service prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of our nation.

The first-day-of-issue event for the Boston 2026 World Stamp Show Commemorative Forever stamps is free and open to the public. News of the stamps is being shared with the hashtag #WorldStampShowStamps.

Who:

William G. Fraine, senior vice president, national sales, U.S. Postal Service

When:

Thursday, Aug. 14, at 11 a.m. CDT

Where:

Great American Stamp Show

Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center

1551 North Thoreau Drive

Schaumburg, IL 60173

RSVP:

Attendees are encouraged to register at usps.com/worldstampshowstamps.

Background:

For one week in May 2026, the world capital of stamp collecting will be Boston, host to the 2026 World Expo, the 12th international philatelic exhibition of the United States.

From May 23-30, 2026, the Boston 2026 World Expo will fill the halls and meeting rooms of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. Spanning 352,000 square feet of exhibition space, the expo will feature a vast bourse — the philatelic term for a collectors' and dealers' marketplace — as well as hundreds of collectors' club and society meetings, competitive exhibitions, dedication ceremonies for new stamps, and displays and exhibits by postal authorities around the world.

This event offers rare and remarkable opportunities for stamp collectors to connect with colleagues and friends, build their collections, learn from experts, and fully immerse themselves in their hobby. For curious newcomers and the public, the expo offers eye-catching displays of visually stunning stamps, opportunities to learn about other countries and their cultures, and a rich sense of tradition in a fun, family-friendly setting.

The United States hosted its first international philatelic exhibition in New York City in 1913 and has hosted similar expos once a decade ever since. In 1926, the U.S. Post Office Department issued a special souvenir sheet commemorating the 1777 Battle of White Plains with text promoting the second international philatelic exhibition on the selvage, the start of a tradition of commemorating or promoting the exhibition through stamps.

Since the 1970s, a tradition of issuing special U.S. stamps to commemorate the international philatelic exhibition at the event itself has, with some exceptions, generally given way to the release of stamps to promote the exhibition in advance. Today, many other nations issue stamps, sometimes three years beforehand, to build anticipation and commemorate a gathering that celebrates, as no other event can, the confluence of art, education, history and international goodwill.

The artist for these stamps was Dan Gretta. Greg Breeding, an art director for USPS, designed the stamps.

These stamps are being issued as Forever stamps and will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce rate.