USPS to launch new Priority Mail series Jan. 22 featuring Webb Telescope photos of remarkable stellar formations

By Charles Snee

On Jan. 22, the United States Postal Service will launch a new series of Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express stamps showcasing remarkable photographs of stellar formations taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.

Although no official first-day ceremony is planned for the two stamps, the designated first-day city is Greenbelt, Md., home to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, which managed the development of the Webb Telescope.

The new $9.85 Priority Mail stamp shows a high-definition infrared image of the Pillars of Creation, a formation within the Eagle Nebula, while the $30.45 Priority Mail Express stamp features a “digitally colored depiction of the invisible bands of mid-infrared light emitted by the Cosmic Cliffs of the Carina Nebula,” according to the Postal Service.

Both stamps are to be issued the day after new postal rates go into effect on Jan. 21, a Sunday.

Flat-rate Priority Mail postage rose from $9.65 to $9.85. The increase in the flat rate for Priority Mail Express was more substantial, jumping from $28.75 to $30.45. Postage for a first-class letter increased from 66¢ to 68¢.

Postal Service art director Greg Breeding designed the $9.85 Pillars of Creation Priority Mail stamp using an image provided by NASA and the European Space Agency, Canadian Space Agency and Space Telescope Science Institute.

Breeding also designed the $30.45 Cosmic Cliffs Priority Mail Express stamp using an image from the same sources.

The Pillars of Creation and Cosmic Cliffs stamps represent the end of the American Landmarks series of Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express stamps that began in 2008. All the American Landmarks stamps feature poster-style illustrations by Chicago-based artist Dan Cosgrove.

“The Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express stamps are now featuring a new design direction using images from the Webb telescope,” Jim McKean, senior public relations representative for the USPS, told Linn’s Stamp News.

On Oct. 23, 2023, the Postal Service revealed the designs of the 2024 Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express stamps. At that time, the preliminary designs showed $9.65 and $28.75 denominations.

The Postal Service’s 2024 U.S. stamp program was announced in the Nov. 13, 2023, issue of Linn’s.

On Jan. 9, Melissa Chavez, a public relations representative for the USPS, supplied Linn’s with updated images of the Pillars of Creation Priority Mail stamp and Cosmic Cliffs Priority Mail Express stamp showing the new denominations of $9.85 and $30.45, respectively.

As of Jan. 9, the USPS had not published technical details for the stamps. That information will be published in Linn’s when it is available.

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