USPS previews planned stamp issues for 2022

The United States Postal Service earlier this month released a preview of some of the new stamps scheduled for release in 2022.

The most appealing of the designs to me is the set of 16 featuring various National Marine Sanctuaries. Those stamps feature everything from landscapes to close-ups of various marine animals, and they’re quite attractive. Oddly, the preview artwork suggests that none of the stamps bear any text identifying which sanctuaries are pictured, which seems a bit of a lost opportunity.

Also catching my eye was the design for the newest entry in the current series of low-value definitives, a 4¢ stamp picturing blueberries. I think those fruit stamps look very nice.

For the most part, I’m not crazy about the other designs. The Mountain Flora stamps picturing various flowers are fine, but do we really need new flower stamps every year? Of the 62 different designs pictured in the USPS press release, no fewer than eight (nearly 13%) picture flowers. Maybe, in today’s politically charged climate, flowers are a “safe” subject not likely to inspire controversy, but yawn.

One positive note on the flower stamps: two of them are intended for use by nonprofit organizations and will presumably supplant the Patriotic Nonprofit design released in 2017. Could this be an initial foray into larger sets of nonprofit stamps? I, for one, would like to see the USPS issue a coil of nonprofit stamps featuring 10, 25, or even 50 different designs—not necessarily flowers, but presidents or landmarks from each of the 50 states or something like that. It sure would make receiving junk mail more interesting!

What do you think of next year’s announced stamps? Take a look at the press release, then leave a comment below.

Published 2021-11-08