About This Stamp
Since 2005, the Postcrossing website has inspired more than 805,000 people around the world to send more than 85 million postcards to eager recipients in other countries. These four triangular stamps, which recognize Postcrossing for highlighting the fun of receiving real, personalized mail, also celebrate the role of the website in promoting greater understanding across countries and cultures.
As Global stamps, the Postcrossing stamps may be used to send a postcard from the United States to any country to which First-Class Mail International® service is available. In addition to adding a fun touch to any postcard, these stamps are also an eye-catching way to spread the word about Postcrossing by using them on international letters. These stamps 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. In short, these stamps are similar to Forever® stamps, but for use on international letters and cards.
Postcrossing was created in 2005 by Portuguese student Paulo Magalhães, who found that receiving postcards in the mail always made his day a little brighter. With the help of friends, including community manager Ana Campos, he launched Postcrossing on July 14, 2005, at first hosting the website on an old personal computer in his home. An online community soon grew around the site, and by April 2008, Postcrossing members had exchanged one million postcards.
Today, more than 805,000 members in more than 200 countries and territories have used Postcrossing to send more than 85 million postcards overall, with more than 300,000 on their way to recipients at any given moment. Members in the United States have sent the second-highest number of postcards, with Germany taking the top spot as the home of the most active postcard senders.
Postcrossing membership is free. When sending postcards, members write personalized notes that highlight aspects of their hometown, their interests, or their lives. When receiving cards, members are encouraged to enjoy the surprise. They may discover something new about an unfamiliar city, learn more about the history of another country, encounter a work of art for the first time, or glimpse a moment in the life of someone on the other side of the world.
Today, an international team helps maintain the Postcrossing website, and the worldwide human connections fostered by Postcrossing have led to a number of educational, historical, and philanthropic initiatives. In 2020, the year after celebrating the 150th anniversary of the postcard, Postcrossing co-launched the worldwide designation of October 1 as World Postcard Day, based on the date in 1869 when the first modern postcard was known to have debuted in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Postcrossing has inspired school projects, museum exhibitions, and regular in-person meet-ups, and the website has helped raise funds for disaster relief and other causes.
Since 2011, numerous countries and postal authorities have issued Postcrossing stamps. With four colorful, lighthearted scenes that acknowledge the great distances postcards often need to travel, the Postal Service’s new Postcrossing stamps will brighten countless postcards as they convey greetings of friendship the world over.
Stamp Art Director, Stamp Designer
Antonio Alcalá
Antonio Alcalá served on the Postmaster General’s Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee from 2010 until 2011, when he left to become an art director for the U.S. Postal Service's stamp development program.
He is founder and co-owner of Studio A, a design practice working with museums and arts institutions. His clients include: the National Gallery of Art, Library of Congress, National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Phillips Collection, and Smithsonian Institution. He also lectures at colleges including the Corcoran College of Art + Design, SVA, Pratt, and MICA.
In 2008, his work and contributions to the field of graphic design were recognized with his selection as an AIGA Fellow. He has judged international competitions for the Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, AIGA, and Graphis. Alcalá also serves on the Smithsonian National Postal Museum and Poster House Museum’s advisory councils. His designs are represented in the AIGA Design Archives, the National Postal Museum, and the Library of Congress Permanent Collection of Graphic Design.
Alcalá graduated from Yale University with a BA in history and from the Yale School of Art with an MFA in graphic design. He lives with his wife in Alexandria, Virginia.
Stamp Artist
Jackson Gibbs
Jackson Gibbs is an artist and designer currently based in Phoenix, Arizona.
Growing up in the expansive desert city of Phoenix, Gibbs grew his symphonic art and design chops from a youthful diet of graffiti and skateboarding. Having lived all over, from Arizona to New York City, Gibbs’s work often explores the iconography of these cities in its simplest form. His work ranges from painting to animation, but he is perhaps best known as an editorial illustrator across countless digital platforms.
From conceptual editorial work to bold band posters, Gibbs’s work grabs viewers through his sense of color and keeps them through his nuanced details of the familiar.
The four 2026 Postcrossing stamps are Gibbs's first project for the Postal Service.