The USPS has added a new issue for the Lunar New Year, dedicated to the horse in the zodiac. The service begins placing this issue into real circulation: some post offices have begun receiving panes of twenty stamps; the online shop has listed the item, available from the specified date. USPS sets 3 February 2026 as the official first day and chooses Houston, Texas, for the ceremony, because local Asian American groups have already planned public events for the holiday and can show the stamp to a live audience, not just philatelists.
The design team built the stamp around a stylized horse mask. Illustrator Camille Chew created the mask as a bright festival object, not as a naturalistic animal portrait, and photographer Sally Andersen-Bruce fixed this object in a clean studio shot. Art director Antonio Alcalá took their work and turned it into a finished stamp: he kept the horse’s face large, set it on a deep red field, and let oranges, firecrackers, and paper fans surround the main image so that the small rectangle carried the whole New Year scene, not just one character.
This stamp is the seventh in a twelve-year set, where USPS portrays each zodiac sign with a consistent design. Each animal appears as a mask, so the set looks like a single ensemble when collectors arrange the issues in a row. The postal service keeps the format stable on purpose: one Forever stamp for the basic First-Class letter rate, a pane of 20 self-adhesive stamps, standard size, and the familiar “USA / FOREVER” wording along the edge.
In the zodiac cycle, the horse stands for movement, energy, and independence. USPS leans on this meaning in background notes for the issue: internal texts mention forward motion, fresh starts, and the moment when a new year breaks routine. When the design team reviewed proofs, they talked about the mask as “a face that wants to step out of the frame”. Long ears, a narrow muzzle, and bright decorative details give the horse a slightly theatrical expression, so the stamp looks more dynamic than many older New Year designs.
Collectors can react in different ways. Some prepare first-day covers with the Houston cancellation and treat the stamp as part of a long zodiac project. Others keep one clean pane in an album of modern U.S. issues. A third group can simply buy a sheet, peel off a few stamps for family cards, and keep the rest “just in case”.
In this context, the new issue gives a clear anchor: the Year of the Horse is approaching according to the Lunar calendar, the postal service adds its own visual sign of that change, and each envelope that carries this horse mask quietly joins the broader celebration of the Lunar New Year.
