These new stamps capture the delight of finding a letter, greeting card, or package waiting in your mailbox. It puts a shine on the rest of the day-even before you’ve opened it. Despite all the ways we communicate with friends and family today, there’s still nothing as personal as knowing someone took time to choose a card … write a letter … wrap a package … and even choose a special stamp simply to “Send a Hello.”

The stamp art featuring popular characters:
- Lightning McQueen and Mater from Cars (2006)
- Remy the rat and Linguini from Ratatouille (2007)
- Buzz Lightyear and two of the green, three-eyed aliens from Toy Story (1995)
- Carl Fredricksen and Dug from Up (2009)
- the robot WALL•E from WALL•E (2008).

The “Send a Hello” stamps are being issued as Forever stamps. Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce rate.

Title: Send a Hello – USA
Date of Issue: 19 August 2011
Country: USA
Denominations: 44c x 5

Source: http://www.usps.com/

This 2011 stamp depicts Ray Harroun in the customized yellow-and-black “Wasp” in which he won the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911. The car was built by the Indianapolis-based Marmon Motor Car Company and included one of Harroun’s own inventions, the rearview mirror. Today, the car is a prime attraction at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.

The Speedway dream was born in 1909, when an investment team led by entrepreneur and automobile dealer Carl Graham Fisher purchased 320 acres of farmland outside Indianapolis to create a speedway for racing competitions and private testing. After a series of motorcycle and automotive races at the new speedway, Fisher chose to focus on a single event, an ambitious 500-mile race to be held on Memorial Day.

In 1927, the founders sold the Speedway to a group led by World War I flying ace and fellow entrepreneur Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker. In the decades that followed, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway contended with the financial hardships of the Great Depression, and World War II forced the closing of the track. In 1945, Rickenbacker sold the dilapidated speedway to Terre Haute entrepreneur Tony Hulman. Beginning with the 500 on Memorial Day weekend of 1946, Hulman revived the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and oversaw the Indianapolis 500 until his death in 1977. Today, the speedway remains in the Hulman family—and remains the home of beloved Indy 500 traditions.

Title: Indianapolis 500
Date of Issue: 20 May 2011
Country: USA
Denominations: $0.44

Source: http://www.usps.com/

One stamp commemorates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Project Mercury, America’s first manned spaceflight program, and NASA astronaut Alan Shepard’s historic flight on May 5, 1961, aboard the spacecraft Freedom 7.

The other stamp draws attention to NASA’s unmanned MESSENGER mission, a scientific investigation of the planet Mercury. On March 17, 2011, MESSENGER became the first spacecraft to enter into orbit around Mercury.

These two historic missions—Shepard’s Mercury flight and MESSENGER’s orbit of Mercury—frame a remarkable fifty-year period in which America has advanced space exploration through more than 1,500 manned and unmanned flights.

The Mercury Project stamp depicts Alan Shepard, the Mercury capsule Freedom 7, and the Redstone launching rocket. The MESSENGER Mission stamp depicts the MESSENGER spacecraft in orbit around the planet Mercury.

Project Mercury
As the world watched on television, Shepard blasted off from Cape Canaveral, FL, on May 5, 1961. The flight reached a maximum speed of 5,100 mph, roughly eight times the speed of sound, and a zenith of 116 miles above the Earth. With parachutes deploying, the space capsule safely splashed down in the Atlantic some 300 miles from the launch site. The New York Times declared that Shepard’s 15-minute flight “roused the country to one of its highest peaks of exultation since the end of World War II.”

Emboldened by this achievement, President John F. Kennedy declared in a historic speech on May 25, 1961, that America “should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

The Mercury project set the country on a path that would lead to the stunning Apollo 11 moon landing eight years later on July 20, 1969, a crowning technological achievement of the 20th century.

MESSENGER
On March 17, 2011, MESSENGER became the first spacecraft to enter into orbit around Mercury. MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) is a scientific mission to investigate Mercury, which some scientists say is “the least-studied terrestrial planet” in our solar system.

Launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL, on Aug. 3, 2004, the spacecraft made six “flybys” of planets, including one of Earth, two of Venus, and three of Mercury. The flybys were done to collect data, to conserve fuel through gravity assists, and to make adjustments critical to achieving the precise trajectory for successfully inserting the spacecraft into orbit around Mercury.

Entering orbit in March 2011 represented a major milestone in space exploration. The data obtained by MESSENGER before and during the year-long orbit will be analyzed for many years to come. Scientists think the data may explain how the planet took shape and also offer clues about the origin of the solar system.

Title: Mercury Project and MESSENGER Mission
Date of Issue: 4 May 2011
Country: USA
Denominations: $0.44 x 2

Source: http://www.usps.com/

Inspired by vintage jazz record-album covers, Pasadena, Calif., artist Paul Rogers captured the eclectic nature of jazz music and the spontaneity and improvisation of jazz artists in creating art for the Jazz Appreciation Forever Stamp.

“With this evocative Jazz stamp, we celebrate the music and the musicians who play it in studios, clubs and concert halls and on festival stages,” said Thurgood Marshall Jr., vice chairman, Postal Service Board of Governors. “I can’t think of a more perfect place to dedicate this new stamp than here in New Orleans, the birthplace of so many legendary jazz performers… and where jazz first flowered near the dawn of the 20th century.

“Jazz is a pastime that brings people together, regardless of race, ethnicity or background,” said Marshall. “It’s a lot like the Postal Service, which has been bringing people together for over 235 years, through the power of the mail.”

Title: Jazz Appreciation
Date of Issue: 26 March 2011
Country: USA
Denominations: Forever

Source: www.usps.com

Among the distinctive musical genres and styles represented by the music legends featured on the Forever stamps are Tejano, tango, samba, Latin jazz and salsa. The honorees are:

Texas-born Selena Quintanilla-Perez (1971-1995) — known to fans simply as Selena — helped transform and popularize Tejano music by integrating techno-hip-hop beats and disco-influenced dance movements with a captivating stage presence. A Grammy recipient, the “Queen of Tejano” broke gender barriers with record sales and awards. Even after her tragic death, Selena remains an important representative of Latin culture.

A superb and evocative singer, Carlos Gardel (1890?-1935) was one of the most celebrated tango artists of all time. Raised in Argentina, Gardel helped popularize the tango in the United States, Europe and throughout Latin America through his performances and recordings. Known as “the man with the tear in his voice,” also achieved fame as one of the stars of Spanish-language cinema.

Born in Portugal and raised in Brazil, Carmen Miranda (1909-1955) achieved fame as a samba singer before moving to New York City, where she gained celebrity in theater, film and radio. The “Brazilian Bombshell” appeared in 14 Hollywood musicals and recorded more than 300 songs. Her exotic colorful outfits and persona also became her signature.

Born in New York City to Puerto Rican parents, Tito Puente (1923-2000) was a musical virtuoso known as El Rey, “The King.” With dynamic solos on the timbales and orchestral arrangements that have become classics in Latin music, Puente helped bring Afro-Cuban and Caribbean sounds to mainstream audiences. He performed for more than 60 years, and his legacy includes more than 140 albums.

A dazzling performer of many genres of Afro-Caribbean music, Celia Cruz (1925-2003) had a powerful contralto voice and a joyful, charismatic personality that endeared her to fans from different nationalities and across generations. Settling in the United States following the Cuban revolution, the “Queen of Salsa” performed for more than five decades and recorded more than 50 albums.

Title: Latin Music Legends
Date of Issue: 16 March 2011
Country: USA
Denominations: Forever x 5

Source: www.usps.com

The Lunar New Year is celebrated primarily by people of Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tibetan, and Mongolian heritage in many parts of the world. In the United States as elsewhere, the occasion is marked in various ways across a diverse array of cultures. Parades, parties, and other special events are common.

Kumquats, such as those depicted in the stamp art, are given as gifts and eaten for luck at this time of renewed hope for the future.

Famous people born in the Year of the Rabbit include film director Francis Ford Coppola, athlete Michael Jordan, and actress Drew Barrymore.

Title: Year of the Rabbit – USA
Date of Issue: 22 January 2011
Country: USA
Denominations: Forever

Source: www.usps.com

Holiday Evergreens Forever
Decorating with evergreens during the winter holiday season is a popular and appealing tradition. These beautiful new stamps feature close-up views of the foliage and cones of four different conifers: ponderosa pine, eastern red cedar, blue spruce and balsam fir.

The artist, the late Ned Seidler, was a gifted painter of nature subjects. When painting flora, he frequently used cuttings from plants and trees in his own yard as reference.

Angel with Lute
For the holiday season, angels represent peace on earth. This stamp features an angel playing a lute, an image from a fresco painted around the year 1480 by Italian Renaissance artist, Melozzo da Forli, for the apse of the Church of the Holy Apostles in Rome. It radiates serenity and dignity, along with compassion, while the lute points to harmony and song.

Title: Holidays Forever – 2010
Date of Issue: 21 October 2010
Country: USA
Denominations: forever x 4, 44c

Source:

Julia de Burgos, was a revolutionary writer, thinker, and activist, “She wrote more than 200 poems that probe issues of love, feminism, and political and personal freedom. Her groundbreaking works urged women, minorities and the poor to defy social conventions and find their own true selves.”

Julia Constanza Burgos García was born on Feb. 17, 1914, in the town of Carolina, Puerto Rico. The eldest of 13 children, de Burgos grew up along the Río Grande de Loíza. She later wrote, “My childhood was all a poem in the river, and a river in the poem of my first dreams.” Although her family’s limited means made attending college difficult, de Burgos persevered and graduated from the University of Puerto Rico in 1933 with a two-year teaching degree. For the next several years, she worked at a series of teaching and journalism jobs while also publishing poems in journals and newspapers.

De Burgos’ first collection, Exact Poems to Myself, consisted of poems she wrote in 1934 and 1935. One of the poems written during this early period also became her most famous, “Río Grande de Loíza,” a love song to the river of her childhood. In another poem, de Burgos rejected the social and behavioral restrictions placed on women, forcefully proclaiming, “I am life, strength, woman.” Other poems address political themes such as equality and social justice.

De Burgos left Puerto Rico in 1940 for New York City, then moved to Cuba, where she stayed until 1942. From 1944 to 1945, she served as an editor for Pueblos Hispanos, a New York-based newspaper that promoted many progressive social and political causes including Puerto Rican independence. In 1946, she received another literary award, this time for her essay, “To Be or Not To Be Is the Motto.”

Title: Julia de Burgos – Celebrated Poet
Date of Issue: 14 September 2010
Country: USA
Denominations: 44c

Source: www.usps.com

Title: Hawaiian Rain Forest
Date of Issue: 1 September 2010
Country: USA
Denominations: 44c x 10

Source: www.usps.com

Her humility and compassion, as well as her respect for the innate worth and dignity of humankind, inspired people of all ages and backgrounds to work on behalf of the world’s poorest populations.

Mother Teresa, an ethnic Albanian, was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on Aug. 26, 1910, in Skopje in what is now the Republic of Macedonia. Drawn to the religious life as a young girl, she left her home at the age of 18 to serve as a Roman Catholic missionary in India. “By then I realized my vocation was towards the poor,” she later said. “From then on, I have never had the least doubt of my decision.” Having adopted the name of Sister Mary Teresa, she arrived in India in 1929 and underwent initial training in religious life at a convent in Darjeeling, north of Calcutta. Two years later, she took temporary vows as a nun before transferring to a convent in Calcutta. She became known as Mother Teresa in 1937, when she took her final vows.

Title: Mother Teresa
Date of Issue: 5 September 2010
Country: USA
Denominations: 44c

Source: http://www.usps.com/