Thailand Post put out a New Year set on 5 December 2025 that looks more like a tray of lucky charms than a regular issue. The release, titled “New Year 2026 – Thai Amulets,” consists of five different stamp designs, each built around a protective talisman that Thai people usually wear on a cord or keep in a pocket. Officially the set belongs to the 2025 stamp program, but in practice it is treated as the main New Year issue for 2026.
According to the Thai daily newspaper Daily News, Thailand Post introduced the “New Year 2026 – Thai Amulets” set at a ceremony in early December 2025. According to Thailand Post’s own product information, the stamp series is printed as a set of five vertical designs, each with a face value—or stamp value—of 5 baht. The stamps measure 36 by 51 millimeters and are produced in multicolour lithography with embossing and glossy varnish to highlight the detail of the amulets. They are sold as a standard postage stamp set for everyday use, with full sheets of 20 stamps priced at 100 baht, and a limited number of special sets combining perforated and imperforate sheets offered to collectors via pre-order.
Collectors in Thailand know this group as Benjaphakee, five amulets that come up again and again in stories about protection and good fortune. On the stamps they appear in a fixed order. One design carries the tiger of Luang Phor Pan from Wat Mongkhon Kothawat in Samut Prakan; another shows the Hanuman figure linked to Luang Phor Sun at Wat Sala Khun in Nonthaburi. A third brings in the shell-based Bia Kae charm of Luang Pu Rod from Wat Nai Rong in Bangkok. The remaining designs focus on the carved coconut-shell Rahu of Luang Phor Noi from Wat Sisa Thong in Nakhon Pathom and on the Tagruth Maha Solos scroll amulet associated with Luang Pu Iam at Wat Saphan Sung in Nonthaburi.
Thai commentators usually describe these pieces through the qualities they are meant to bring into a person’s life: authority, courage, a turn from bad luck to good fortune, protection from harm, and a clearer, steadier mind.
In an interview quoted by Thai daily newspaper Daily News, Thailand Post’s chief executive Danan Supatthanaphan described the New Year 2569 (2026) issue as an attempt to turn the country’s “amulet culture” into a contemporary visual language for the postal service. He emphasized that the New Year period is still seen as a time for sending wishes and talismans of good fortune, and that this stamp set is meant to serve as a “medium of faith” that is accessible to everyone, whether it ends up on a household altar, in an album, or simply on a parcel label. The amulets depicted on the stamps were ceremonially consecrated at Wat Mongkhon Kothawat in early November, underlining the balance between spiritual symbolism and the very practical role of the postal system.
For stamp collecting, “New Year 2026 – Thai Amulets” stands out as a crossover issue: it belongs as much to topical collections of religion, talismans, and Thai culture as it does to standard New Year issues. Dealers already list perforated and imperforate varieties, special sheets, and first-day covers that play to this mix of faith and design. For ordinary senders, however, the worth of the stamp is simply its 5-baht postal value and the quiet sense of reassurance that comes with sticking a sacred image on a letter. At the start of 2026, Thailand’s most famous protective charms now travel the country—and the world—not just in amulet cases, but also on envelopes, postcards, and carefully packed New Year gifts.
