New stamp especially for greeting cards

The U.S. Postal Service announced in May the first in a new series of postage stamps that will make it easier for card customers to know how much postage to put on their envelopes. The new 64-cent Butterfly stamp is designed to be used on cards that have an irregular shape that require additional postage.


Participating manufacturers will print a silhouette image of a butterfly on their envelopes, which will start to appear in retail stores in mid-summer, making it easy for customers to understand the new butterfly stamp or equivalent postage is all that is needed to mail the card.

The first stamp design in the new series features one of the most recognizable butterflies in North America, the monarch. Monarch butterflies can be found in most of the continental U.S. While they are concentrated in North, Central and South America, they can also be found in the Pacific islands and other locations.

The was dedicated, in conjunction with the Greeting Card Association (GCA), at the National Stationery Show held at the Jacob Javits Center in New York. The stamp is published as a pane of 20.

“This stamp was designed in conjunction with the Greeting Card Association for the convenience of our customers,” said Stephen M. Kearney, senior vice president, Customer Relations, U.S. Postal Service. “These stamps take the guesswork out of how much postage to put on the square greeting card envelopes that are so popular with consumers.”

“The Greeting Card Association is extremely pleased to see the Butterfly stamp become a reality,” said Valerie Cooper, GCA’s executive vice president. “Our members have worked long and hard to help develop this special stamp to meet the needs of card senders.”


Nationally acclaimed artist Tom Engeman used images of mounted butterflies to inspire the stamp art he created by computer. The result is a highly stylized, simplified image of a monarch rather than an exact replica. Engeman, of Bethany Beach, DE, has designed a long list of stamps for the Postal Service, including the Liberty Bell Forever stamp, various stamped cards in the Historical Preservation series and 60 stamps for the Flags of Our Nation series that began in 2008.