250 Years, 20 Stamps, One Story
The 250 Years of Delivering stamps celebrate the Postal Service's role in connecting Americans
America’s postal system has been keeping us connected for two and a half centuries. To celebrate this milestone anniversary, the new 250 Years of Delivering stamps highlight the bonds between mail carriers and the communities they serve.
The novel stamps also emphasize connectedness in their design — with the pane’s 20 stamps interlocking to form a single scene. Stamps of two or more designs on the same pane — or in the same booklet — are described as se-tenant, French for “joined together” (Americanized pronunciation: say-TEN-unt).
Continuous-design stamps are se-tenants that go further: A single design continues across the boundary of one stamp onto another, or multiple others. The 250 Years stamps advance the continuous-design concept; one overall design is divided into 20 stamps. Each stands alone nicely, but collectively they tell a story.
Once an unusual novelty, se-tenant stamps are now issued regularly. The recent Goodnight Moon pane and the Baby Wild Animals stamp booklet are recent examples. Battlefields of the American Revolution, also issued in 2025, is a se-tenant pane of 15 stamps, 10 of which are continuous-design.
Continuous-design se-tenants reach a new level of complexity with 250 Years of Delivering. These delightful stamps tell a story and offer a fun challenge to find familiar USPS icons scattered around the artwork — they’re listed on the verso side to test a game-player’s eagle eye. They will be available for purchase July 23, 2025, both online and in Post Offices nationwide.
