Announcing the Stamp Encore Winner
Chosen by popular vote, the Mister Rogers stamp, originally released in 2018, is new again for 2026
The ballots have been cast and tallied, and we now celebrate the Stamp Encore contest winner with a rare event: a stamp reprise!
“The Mister Rogers stamp was wildly popular when it first came out,” says USPS Director of Stamp Services Lisa Bobb-Semple. Postal clerks in neighborhoods across the country were astonished by the stamp’s brisk sellout in 2018. After months of eager anticipation, Mister Rogers was revealed as the contest winner on May 24 at the Boston 2026 World Stamp Expo, the once-per-decade international exhibition.
On his groundbreaking public television series, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Fred Rogers (1928–2003) inspired and educated young viewers with extraordinary warmth, sensitivity, and honesty. His innovative program was unlike anything offered on children’s TV at the time. Produced in Pittsburgh from 1968 to 2001, it was distributed nationally by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
“Fred Rogers is the embodiment of a good person and saw good qualities in everyone,” says USPS art director Derry Noyes, designer of the 2018 stamp, adding, “We are in need of such human beings in this world, and I believe that is why this stamp won the competition.” For the occasion of the stamp’s reintroduction, Noyes designed a companion issuance — a brand new four-stamp Mister Rogers souvenir sheet.
The esteem shown for Mister Rogers in Stamp Encore balloting seems fitting; Fred Rogers sometimes replied to 100 letters per day, never resorting to form letters. “I care deeply about sending a personal response,” Rogers wrote in a book about his postal correspondence. “It gives me a way to know my television neighbors as real people and to make a more personal connection with them.”
“I think people select stamps because of what message that stamp sends — what you’re trying to communicate,” says Bobb-Semple, who administered the contest. “I think that is a large part of the Mister Rogers stamp’s success.”
For the recipient of a card or letter bearing a Mister Rogers stamp, the warm first impression is perhaps best summed up with lyrics from one of his best loved songs: You are my friend, you are special.
