About This Stamp
Send greetings to friends and family overseas with a Global Forever® stamp from the U.S. Postal Service.
This round stamp features a beautiful pink chrysanthemum. Shot from above, the photograph shows the intricate design of the flower’s bloom.
Known as the “Queen of the Fall Flowers,” mums (as they are popularly called) are one of America’s favorite garden, cut, and container plants. First mentioned in Chinese literature as early as the 15th century B.C., chrysanthemums are members of the vast Asteraceae family.
The wild variety in China was a small yellow flower used in herbal remedies. Today there are hundreds of chrysanthemum cultivars. Among the many different types of chrysanthemum blooms are cushion, daisy, decorative, pompom, and spider. Chrysanthemum flowers come in many colors, including lime green, bronze, rust, maroon, white, yellow, and purple.
The fall-blooming chrysanthemum symbolizes joy and optimism in the face of the oncoming winter months, and the flowers are popular worldwide. Highly revered in Japan since the eighth century, the chrysanthemum is used on the seal and crest of the country’s emperor. Japan’s National Chrysanthemum Day, also called the Festival of Happiness, celebrates the beloved plant’s importance to Japanese culture.
In parts of the world, the flower is brewed into tea that is believed to remedy various ailments. According to the popular practice of feng shui⎯the art of creating harmony and balance within a surrounding environment ⎯ mums are believed to bring good luck to the home. Among Australians, chrysanthemums are the flower of choice for sending on Mother’s Day, which falls in May, an autumn month in the Southern Hemisphere. In the U.S., mums are November’s birth flower, and they are the official flower of the city of Chicago. They are also the flower designated to celebrate a 13th wedding anniversary.
The art director was William J. Gicker. Greg Breeding designed the stamp with an existing photograph by Hong Vo.
This Global Forever stamp can be used to mail a one-ounce letter to any country to which First-Class Mail International® service is available. As with all Global Forever stamps, this stamp will have a postage value equivalent to the price of the single-piece First-Class Mail International first-ounce machineable letter in effect at the time of use. The Chrysanthemum Global Forever stamps are being issued in self-adhesive panes of 10.
Stamp Art Director
William Gicker
William Gicker served as Director of Stamp Services for the U.S. Postal Service from 2020 until his retirement in 2023. In that position he oversaw stamp development, stamp products and exhibitions, stamp manufacturing, stamp fulfillment, and the Postmaster General’s Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC).
Gicker began working for the U.S. Postal Service in 1998. Initially assistant editor of USA Philatelic, the quarterly stamp catalog produced by Stamp Services, he soon became editor where he oversaw the catalog’s award-winning program until 2013.
Named creative director of stamps in 2001, Gicker became manager and creative director of Stamp Development in 2015. Working closely with Postal Service art directors and CSAC, he managed the creative development and quality control of more than 800 stamp issuances and 1,700 individual stamp designs.
He has served as art director for some of the most popular stamps issued by the Postal Service: the five-year Art of Disney series; Star Wars; Holy Family; Harry Potter; and Hot Wheels. As both art director and designer, Gicker lists among his many stamps, Holiday Baubles; the first international rate Global stamp in 2013; and the Gifts of Friendship joint issuance with Japan. He was also art director for the first stamp to celebrate Diwali, eight more Global Forever® stamps, and several Christmas Madonna and Child issuances, the most recent in 2024.
A native of Pennsylvania, Gicker graduated from West Chester University with a bachelor of arts degree in English Literature. He and his family live in Washington, DC.
Stamp Designer
Greg Breeding
Greg Breeding is a graphic designer and principal of Journey Group, a design company he co-founded in 1992, located in Charlottesville, Virginia. He was creative director until 2013, at which time he began serving as president and continued in that role through 2023.
Breeding’s fascination with modernism began while studying design at Virginia Commonwealth University. His affinity with the movement continues and motivates his ongoing advanced studies at the Basel School of Design in Switzerland most every summer.
As an art director for postage stamp design since 2012, Breeding has designed more than 100 stamps covering a diverse array of subjects, from Star Wars droids and Batman to Harlem Renaissance writers and the transcontinental railroad.
His work has been recognized in annual design competitions held by Graphis, AIGA, PRINT magazine, and Communication Arts.
Breeding lives in North Garden, Virginia, with his wife and enjoys nothing so much as frolicking on the floor with his grandchildren.