2024 Hanukkah First-Class Forever Stamps
2024 Hanukkah
- Issued in honor of the Festival of Lights
- Part of the Holiday Celebrations series
Stamp Category: Commemorative
Set: Holiday Celebrations Series
Value: 73¢ First Class Mail Rate (forever)
First Day of Issue: September 19, 2024
First Day City: Washington, DC
Quantity Issued: 10,000,000
Printed by: Banknote Corporation of America
Printing Method: Offset, Microprint
Format: Pane of 20, from cylinders of 320
Why the stamp was issued: The stamp was issued for use on Hanukkah greetings in the 2024 season.
About the stamp design: The Hanukkah stamp pictures an ink drawing of a menorah (or hanukkiah). This nine-branched candelabra is a central part of Hanukkah celebrations. USPS art director, Antonio Alcala created the illustration digitally. Blue and white are the main colors on this stamp because they are traditional colors of the holiday.
First Day City: The First Day of Issue ceremony for the Hanukkah stamp took place at the Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC.
About the Holiday Celebration Series: The USPS introduced the Holiday Celebration series in 1996 with a stamp honoring the Jewish festival, Hanukkah. The Hanukkah stamp was also the start of the USPS’s new Holiday Celebrations Series, which sought to honor a different cultural or ethnic holiday every year. The second stamp in the series came exactly a year after the first. It honored Kwanzaa, an African-American holiday based on the traditional African harvest festival. The name for the seven-day festival means “first fruits” in Swahili.
The series continues to commemorate different cultural or religious holidays each year such as Eid, Cinco de Mayo, and others.
History the stamp represents: Hanukkah or the Jewish Festival of Lights, as it is sometimes called, begins on the 25th of the Hebrew month Kislev and lasts for eight days. On the first evening, just after dark, one candle is lit on the menorah, a special eight-branched candelabrum. Each night, another candle is lit until on the last night there are eight candles burning.
The origins of Hanukkah can be traced back more than 2100 years ago when Judah Maccabee and his followers liberated Jerusalem from Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Devoted to the political and cultural ideas of ancient Greece, Antiochus had enacted a number of anti-Jewish decrees and defiled the Holy Temple in an effort to destroy the Jews’ religion. Eventually they rebelled, and amazingly, after a three-year struggle, were able to defeat the Greek Army.
After their victory, the Jews set about cleansing and repairing the Holy Temple. When it came time to kindle the Holy Light, only one small jar of oil could be found – enough to burn the light for one day. Miraculously, the light burned for eight days and nights, long enough to prepare a fresh supply of consecrated oil. The next year the leaders of Israel declared that every year on the 25th of Kislev all Jews should celebrate the miracle of Chanukah (dedication). Today, the menorah’s flame has come to symbolize tolerance, diversity, strength, and perseverance.
Frequently Asked Questions
How it works?
A Forever® stamp is for sending domestic mail weighing up to 1 oz via First-Class Mail®.
Purpose: Send letters and cards up to 1 oz (approximately 4 sheets of regular, 8-1/2" x 11" paper in a rectangular envelope)
within the U.S., including U.S. territories and military bases overseas.
Value: Always valid for the First-Class Mail 1 oz rate, even if postage rates increase. Visit First-Class Mail and Postage to view
current rates.
Other Uses: Pair this stamp’s value with other postage to meet mailing costs when additional postage is required.
Use the Retail Postage Calculator to determine the exact cost of your mail.
Why is "FOREVER" crossed out in the image?
So the lines in your picture:
- It does not mean that the stamp has expired;
- It does not mean that you cannot continue to use it;
- Nor a postmark;
- It's just an artificial anti-copying line added to the display image.
Note: If the physical stamp you receive actually has this crossed line printed on it, be cautious. It may be a display sample, a replica or a fake stamp, rather than a normal usable stamp.
What are the common types of stamps, and how do they differ?
- Forever Stamp: Valid for standard domestic letters within the U.S. These stamps typically do not bear a fixed face value; they remain valid for mailing a standard one-ounce letter at the current rate, even if postage prices increase in the future.
- Global Forever Stamp: Primarily used for standard international letters or postcards sent from the U.S. to other countries. The main difference between this and a standard Forever Stamp lies in its scope of use and postage value.
- Postcard Stamp: Designed specifically for domestic postcards that meet USPS size standards; the postage rate is typically lower than that for standard letters.
- Additional Ounce Stamp: Used to cover the cost of weight exceeding the first ounce; these are usually used in conjunction with a Forever Stamp or other stamps.
- Two-Ounce and Three-Ounce Stamps: Suitable for heavier letters, greeting cards, wedding invitations, or multi-page documents, eliminating the need to combine multiple stamps to cover the required postage.
- Fixed-Value Stamps: These stamps display a specific monetary value (e.g., 1¢, 5¢, or other amounts) and are primarily used to make up postage differences or in combination with other stamps.
- Commemorative and Thematic Stamps: Typically issued to mark historical events, cultural or artistic themes, holidays, notable figures, animals, or natural landscapes. While suitable for regular mail, these stamps are also popular among collectors due to their unique designs and limited release periods.
It is important to note that a stamp's theme and its postage class can overlap; for example, a holiday-themed stamp might also be a Forever Stamp. When purchasing, check for markings such as FOREVER, GLOBAL, POSTCARD, ADDITIONAL OUNCE, or a specific face value to confirm the stamp's intended use.
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