U.S. Postal Service announces new 2008 stamps

DENVER, CO — With the New Year, the United States Postal Service recently announced the list of new commemorative stamps it plans to issue in 2008.

Coming in 2008 to a Post Office near you will be stamps honoring the Lunar New Year, writer and Black Heritage series stamp honoree Charles Chestnutt, a new Love Stamp, new Wedding invitation stamps, entertainers Frank Sinatra and Bette Davis, American journalists, American scientists, the Olympic Games, Alzheimer Awareness, and a number of state flag stamps among others.

Twenty of the state flag stamps will be issued starting in alphabetical order in late spring and fall of this year with the others to be issued in 2009 and 2010.

Except for several stamps to be issued in January and February, the dates of issue for when most of the 2008 stamps will be available nationwide at Post Offices have not been determined yet.

First stamp will be "Celebrating Lunar New Year; Year of the Rat" on Jan. 9. Media only can download 2008 stamp images at http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2008stamps/downloadcenter.htm

2008 U.S. Postal Service Stamps & approximate issue dates:

Celebrating Lunar New Year: Year of the Rat - January 9; Writer Charles W. Chesnutt (Black Heritage Stamp Series) - Jan. 31; Writer Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings - Feb. 21; American Scientists - April; American Journalists - April; Mount St. Mary’s University Stamped Card - April; Entertainer Frank Sinatra - no issue date announced yet; Wedding Hearts - no issue date announced yet; Minnesota Statehood - May; Love: All Heart - no issue date announced yet.

Flags of Our Nation – late spring and fall
This stamp series highlights the Stars and Stripes, 50 state flags, five territorial flags, and the District of Columbia flag. Ten stamps will be issued in late spring - Stars and Stripes, plus Alabama through Delaware - followed by 10 more in the fall - District of Columbia through Kansas. The series continues with the remaining state and other flag stamps to be issued in 2009 and 2010.

Other stamps to be released in 2008: Actress Bette Davis - no issue date announced yet; Vintage Black Cinema - June; The Art of Disney: Imagination - no issue date announced yet; Olympic Games - July; Take Me Out to the Ball Game - no issue date announced yet; Designers Charles and Ray Eames - summer; American Treasures: Painting "Valley of the Yosemite" by Albert Bierstadt - August; Latin Jazz - August; Alzheimer’s Awareness - September; Nature of America: Great Lakes Dunes - no issue date announced yet; Holiday Nutcrackers - no issue date announced yet; 2008 Christmas Stamp - no issue date announced yet.

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Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom at www.usps.com/news.

An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that visits every address in the nation, 146 million homes and businesses, six days a week. It has 37,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products, and services to pay for operating expenses, not tax dollars. The Postal Service has annual revenues of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail.