A Holiday Gift to Business Mailers Courtesy of the Postal Service

Forever Stamps are Now Available on Coils

WASHINGTON, Dec. 9, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Business mailers across the nation will receive a special holiday gift from the U.S. Postal Service this season with the issuance of two, new, First-Class Mail Forever stamps on coils.

The new stamps feature photographs of world-recognized symbols of the United States: the Statue of Liberty and the American flag.  The Lady Liberty and U.S. Flag Forever Stamp coils are now on sale at select Post Offices nationwide, online at www.usps.com, and by phone at 1 800-STAMP-24. Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce price. They were first introduced in 2007.

As the name suggests, Forever Stamps can be used to mail a one-ounce letter regardless of when the stamps are purchased or used and no matter how prices may change in the future.

"Our business and residential customers have spoken and we have listened," said David Failor, executive director, Stamp Services. "This is a customer convenience that will last forever."

Lady Liberty, as the Statue of Liberty is affectionately known, is shown in a close-up photograph of her head and crown taken by Raimund Linke. The statue, located on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, was designed by French sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi, with assistance from engineer Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel (who also designed the Eiffel Tower in Paris) and was dedicated Oct. 28, 1886. At the time, it was the tallest structure in New York at 305 feet.

A gift from the people of France to the people of the United States in recognition of the friendship that developed during the American Revolution, the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of political freedom and democracy for millions of people around the world.

The photograph of the U.S. flag is by Ron Watts. One of the most recognizable symbols in the world, the American flag has regularly appeared on definitive stamps intended for mail use. In the past decade, a number of commemorative stamps have displayed the flag as well. The Stars and Stripes pane (2000), for example, highlighted the evolution of American flags over time, and the Old Glory prestige booklet (2003) featured a wide range of ephemera and folk art that incorporated American flag motifs.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

Visit the Postal Service's holiday press room at usps.com/holidaynewsroom.

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $67 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world's mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 29th in the 2010 Fortune 500. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency six consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.

SOURCE U.S. Postal Service